Insert a Dramatic Sigh

I'd like to make a friend or two while I'm hear, but I'm too scared to use Japanese. Every time I do, they either aren't Japanese or they assume I'm fluent and chatter away and I have to quickly say "yukkuri hanashite kudasai!" (Please slow your speech!). But after that, they just look at me funny...It's really discouraging. I also want a peak at the night life, but even though I'm a legal adult in the states, I'm not here. Plus, the drinking age is 20, which kind of excludes me from bars anyway.

Really, I just want someone to hang with and practice Japanese with. The Yadoya House offered, but it seems more awkward to go to them to "practice" than it does talking to a random person on the street. I was told to talk to school girls, but they're always in groups of about 4 - somewhat intimidating. If I could get two off by themselves, maybe...And Japanese guys are kind of out of the question. They're more intimidating than girls. >>"

Why is it every place I go has something screaming at me to buy it? I bought the Japanese version of the latest FMP novel (it came out on my birthday). I've been trying to read it, but well...You probably get how that goes. I spent 30 minutes on Denshi Jisho tediously searching each kanji radical by radical (somewhat like breaking a word apart to figure out the meaning - Kanji are made from "special" kanji called radicals) and I didn't even finish the first sentence. If the whole thing were in hiragana/katakana, I'd be sooooo much faster. Getting very good with both. Made myself so proud in the restaurant - I read "haafu aisu tiramisu" (Half Ice Tiramisu - my favorite desert ever as it's only 96 calories and it's a good amount) in katakana (the one I'm bad at).

Yui - I mentioned she's one of my favorite singers as she has nice rock music. She also enunciates well - meaning I can sing along in her songs. I'm currently singing along quite well to "Again".

Words I know:
Yamate - Stop!
Yubinkyoku - Post Office (I need this one for money, as it's got internation ATMs)

I'm looking for something night-life related. Any ideas?