A little lying never hurt anybody.

I told my host mom several days ago, that I wasn't going to need dinner on saturday night. I then went on to explain (in very polite speech, the Japanese have several various levels of politeness in grammar, and all of them are a pain in the ass!) that I would be going to hang out with several of the exchange students who came to Japan at the same time as me for one last time, because they are all leaving very soon. I said that we had done it once before back when I was at my first host family, and we had wanted to go to karaoke one last time, but we did all night karaoke, and for that, I needed to be release from my curfew for one night. She said that she believed me, and that it was fine as long as I didn't smoke or drink, which I don't do anyway.
So, on saturday, I came home from school, got in the shower, changed, packed a small bag, and left the house. I then went to meet the other exchange students.

Wait. No, I didn't.

Remember the architecture girl from way back? Met her in a book store on the 23 of November. I finally got to hang out with her again, she wanted my help with some English because she has exams on monday, and she wants to do really well so that she can be an exchange student to her school's partner school, which is in, of all places, Oregon. She didn't know if it was UofO or OSU, but it doesn't really matter.
So, I met her just before 5, and we went to a fuamiresu (family restaurant, a Japanese Denny's, way classier than the American ones) and started to study! She was reading this thing about Ned Kelly, but not from a Japanese textbook, the school actually got those textbooks from Austrailia, so the English is actually real English, and thus rather difficult. Anyway, we got kicked out (a very friendly, "Excuse me, you time is up") of the restaurant because we had been there for 4 hours (2 hour limit during the busy hours). About 8 o'clock (still in the restaurant), I don't remember how we got on the subject, but it had to do with my no curfew. It turned out that, because she lives in a dorm, that she had a curfew! My heart sank. She says "so, what will you do?" Being the quick thinker that I am "oh, yaknow, find a comfortable park or something somewhere and go to sleep" "Why don't you go home" "Well, I told my host family that I was going to Yokohama, so I CAN'T go home" "ok, well, hmm...., ok, I'll hang out with you. I just have to call my dorm and tell them that I am staying at a friends house" "(in my head: fuck yes!)" So, we left the restaurant about 9:30, and were like, hmm, what should we do. We were going to to karaoke, but it is really expensize from like 8 until 12, so we decided to wander/do something for 2 hours, and then get the freetime pack at Karaoke, which is from 12 until 5. We went to game centers, played games, chatted, walked about, ran into some of my friends from school (seniors, and they dont have to go to school, because they have all ready been accepted to college, so they were kicking in back) which is kinda embarrasing because of the way that they kept shouting my name from down the block and the conversation that unsued (senior to architecture girl: he's not your boyfriend, then what are you doing walking around in Ikebukuro with him past 11 at night?! Me: well will ya look the time!), but then we went to Karaoke. Damn, 5 hours of karaoke is really hard on the throat! She was like, "I will sing one song for every 3 that you sing because I have to study" to which I responded "Do you really think that you can study when its this loud" Well, she proved me wrong. But she said she didn't get enough done as she had wanted, but that's ok because we both had a blast. Leave karaoke at 5 in morning, go to breakfast (You something is different about the country you are living when McDonalds is a hot date spot!!) and studyed there too! Finally, a little past 7, we finish all the stuff about Ned Kelly, and leave. Walked her back to her dorm, and invited her on the architecture tour that Norie Fukuda is going to take me on the 1st of February. Since I don't have anything to do in February of March, she invited me to come visit her in Shizuoka, which is where her family lives, when school is on break.
15 hours straight hanging out with someone really makes you feel good. It felt great to be out of the house for a night, and even better to spend it with interesting (cute helps too!) people.
I got home about 9, and woke up around 1.

Her crazy studying ability made me really jealous, so I am going to go finish translating my history packet.

Peter