I met with a potential Japanese conversation exchange partner by the name of Maiko today. Her English is at a minimal level, but then again, so is my Japanese. We got along pretty well in spite of these inhibitors.
At one point, she looked across the table at me quite seriously and said, “I have to ask you an important question.”
I nodded, expecting something like: How serious of a student are you? How good is your English? Y’know, something pertaining to my language level or what not.
“Do you know the show Tru Calling?”
I can only imagine what my expression must have looked like.
Seriously.
Dude, if Eliza Dushku ever came to Japan, I think she would be pleased to know she’s gathered a bit of a following here. It amuses me to no end. It’s like a sign. I picked me a good ‘un to have a celebrity crush on. 
(Damn, I’m so going to…)
Regarding the actual meeting itself, we communicated in a mixture of English, Japanese, and French. Maiko-san had been a French major in school and so when neither of us could quite express ourselves in Japanese or English, we tried in French.
She also enjoys linguistics, as I discovered when I showed her my copy of The Study of Language.
We met at 1:30 this afternoon and parted company something around 5:00. I was quite surprised with this so I really hope this works out.
I’ve been meaning to ask you how often you actually get to use your Japanese, what with the English teaching and the English friends. How is that coming along? Hopefully this helps if you haven’t had much opportunity.