1. What is the closet city to Nerima (yes I'm too lazy to check a map,
besides all our maps are liiiiittle out dated [Hey, I don't think the world is
flat!  Where's the Americas!]) that's about a night's drive?
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Nerima is part of the gigantic sprawl that is Metropolitan Tokyo. 
Neighboring wards are Suginami-ku, Nakano-ku, Toshima-ku, and
Itabashi-ku (the -ku means "ward", btw).  You have to go out quite a
ways before you hit countryside when you leave Nerima.  As for the
specific nature of your request, I'd have to know a little more about what
you want to know for.  For example, the closest fairly major city is
probably Yokohama, but that is similar to Orange County and LA in its
relation to Tokyo (by which I mean that there is no intervening
countryside.  The sprawl never stops).  Depending on how large a city
you want, you could use, say Nagoya (a major city, but not very
interesting).  Or if you don't mind putting them on the Shinkansen (which
runs, as I understand, until about 11 or 12 at night), one can get to
Kyoto/Osaka/Kobe in roughly 3 hours.  Or if you want close but not too
close nearby townships, you could have Chiba, Oyama, Kofu, or Fuji
(yes, this last is directly south of the mountain with the same name)...

4. Does anybody actully want to see this? (besides Venkarel, who has
been a pretty good motivation for me)
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Sure.  Send it on out.

Sorry, but I can't help with the rest of your questions, though...

Tom