Happy New Years! 2012!

Hey everyone,
It's actually January 2nd here so my email and New Years greetings are a little late. Hope you don't mind.
Since I last wrote I really haven't done anything at all. It's been very relaxing. I've hung out with my host family and Norihiro. Norihiro and I wanted a lot of movies this week in our free time, one of them being The Shining which he's been asking me to watch with him since I met him. I think Tamirrah and I should dress up as the little girls next Halloween and freak out everyone on Snow Campus lol. I've studied a bit and been reading the last book for my Japanese Literature Class which is over 600 pages and really confusing. So yeah . . . I'll tell you about my New Years.
New Years Eve Norihiro invited me to hang out. He had some plans with Hiroki to go to a temple. I went to his house and we waited for Hiroki to arrive, he's always late. So he showed up late, as usual and then ended up relaxing in Norihiro's room. Yamamuro san, Norihiro's Mom, cooked us Soba noodles to celebrate the New Years and I spent some time with everyone talking and laughing. I also helped Norihiro with some of his paperwork for study abroad.
When we left Norihiro's house Hiroki wanted to go to Ikea before the temple to buy a bookshelf. Since it was still pretty early we went a long. Also since Hiroki was driving me didn't have much say. But our plans still stood that we were to meet a few of the other boys in Umeda at 11:30 and go to a nearby temple. So we went to Ikea, walked around for over an hour, and Hiroki bought a candle. . .He then wanted to go to his house for something, which I couldn't really understand why. So we drove PAST Umeda to get back to Hiroki's house. Then we stayed there. . . waiting . . . while we met his family and drank some coffee. Norihiro, being the under classman, couldn't really say anything but as the clock started ticking closer to the time we should leave finally, very politely, asked Hiroki if we should go. Hiroki ignored him until the third time Norihiro asked. We ended up leaving the house at 11:15 and, much to mine and Norihiro's surprise, DIDN'T take Hiroki's car. He expected us to run quickly to the station and catch a train to Umeda and be there on time. We ran for a little while but I stopped and refused to run, since Norihiro isn't supposed to run. He could die for crying out loud. Since I stopped Norihiro also stopped. We got to the station at 11:30 and waited for the train. I've never seen Norihiro mad before but he was seriously annoyed with Hiroki. On the train he told me "I don't want to spend my New Years on a train". He explained that normally for New Years he goes to Nagoya, his home town, and spends it with his grandfather. New Years is very important to Norihiro I realized and, unfortunately, we arrived in Umeda and had enough time to get off the train and down the escalator and then it was midnight. So, we didn't spend New Years on a train but we spent it in a deserted station while everyone else in Japan was at temples. Hiroki apologized but, his apologizes are always very sarcastic and not really sincere. He patted Norihiro's back and said, in English, "sorry" with a little laugh. Norihiro said, in very clear and cut English: "Don't touch me".
We met up with Brett and Madison (two of the Aussie boys) and went to a tiny temple near the station, which was completely packed with people and so small that it wasn't really special. Norihiro's mood was so spoiled, he was severely disappointed, that he didn't really want to do anything at that point. I was really let down as well. I'm in Japan and, on the greatest holiday of the year, I spent it inside a train station, because of Hiroki. We did our best to cheer each other up and have a good time while, more or less, avoiding the reality of Hiroki's existence. We would look at Hiroki and say "Redrum" and laugh (thank you Shining!). Norihiro said to me, when no one else was around, "I should have spent New Years with only you." He and I always have a good time, plus we're not usually late for things. I promised him that next year we could have a fun New Years, in the US, and he agreed.
We met up with Ismail later and went to a restaurant and stayed there until around 4 AM. The boys all drank a ton, besides Norihiro and Ismail, and were having a great time. By the end of the night Norihiro was much happier, at least with everyone except Hiroki, and the night ended well. We all took trains at 5:20 AM to head for home. Unfortunately I ended up on the train with only the other foreigners and Brett and Madison were so drunk I was worried they wouldn't be able to make it home. Ismail and I were talking and Brett asked us a question and when Madison didn't like our responses he ended up screaming at us, insulting us, calling us names, and swearing at us. I told him to stop personally attacking me but when he didn't and continued to be a complete inbreed moron I told him to go "F" himself and walked to the other end of the train car. Ismail stayed but defended me and chewed Madison out for talking to me like that, which I really appreciated. Of course it did no good because Madison is an absolute narrow minded idiot without consideration for anyone and in his own mind can do no wrong. But I didn't let it bother me because I remembered that no one likes him :) My New Years was, overall, just ok.
Yesterday, the 1st, I went to Oniisan's mother's house with the family. Masato, Ooki chan and Oniisan's san is in town so it was a big family get together, which I was invited too as well. We ate SO much food and I took a 3 hour nap on a heated rug and woke to eat more food. It felt like Christmas and Thanksgiving rolled together. Today we're doing it again, but with Ooki chan's family. I sure do love this holiday!
Tomorrow, the 3rd, Norihiro and I have plans. Not sure what but he mentioned possibly going to an indoor rock climbing place and a hot spring. We'll see :)
Sorry my email is spastic. I've been going to bed around 3-5 AM the last two nights and waking up in the afternoon so I feel a little crazy. Hopefully I can go to sleep at a normal hour tonight and try to regulate because I feel like I'm on a sugar rush right now.
I hope you all had a great New Years. Happy 2012! For me, 2011 was one of the best years of my life. Good things happened and one of my greatest dreams, to come to Japan, came true. It was the year of the rabbit, which also happens to be the year I was born so, naturally, it was a lucky year for me. Hopefully 2012 brings wonderful things as well. I wish the best for all of you in this new year! Love you!