Meeting My Japanese Host Family

I am now settled in at my new home... So far so good and I think I am going to like it here. My host mom is named Sumiko and her son is named Yoshiro aka "Yoshi." Sumiko is a peppy woman who doesn't speak much English, but she seems to be patient enough to not mind the fact that all I can really do at this point is listen, nod and occasionally understand what she is trying to tell me. Actually, so far we have managed to communicate well. I sat down with her after I unpacked and showed her my map and school schedule and we mapped out my daily commute. I am about a five minute walk to the subway (which I was able to find on my own during a walk that I took)! Later we went downtown to get my 3-month subway pass, which the school gave me about $570 for, and Sumiko worked things out with the clerk and I got a 3-month pass for about $220!!! Now I have extra food money...
How she was able to save me so much money was by purchasing a subway pass that would get me from here to school only, instead of an "all-zones" pass -- which I don't think I would use the extra $350 worth of subway passes because school will preoccupy most of my time. Basically she made sure that I am spending only what I need to spend; I would have to ride the subway at least 36 times, in all different zones, before I had gotten my money's worth. Now I will just have to ride as a "day-use" passenger -- and I dout I will ride the subway 36 times more than I really need to! She scored high on the cool chart for that maneuver, for sure.
Tonight, she and her mother (I don't remember grandma's name, as we met only briefly before dinner) cooked up a sweet tempura dinner: fish, eggplant, peppers, sweet potato, and shrimp.
We also had miso soup, some tasty rice thingy, and pickles. MMM! -- And, since I started writing to you, she brought me a plate of melon, which I will eat when this has been written.
Tomorrow, Sumiko is taking me to a local festival -- yay!
Yoshi is pretty cool as well. He is a chilled out ex-World-Cup snow-boarder (with many medals to prove it) who does speak English fairly well. I talked to him for a little while today about his experiences as a host family, and his sports achievements, but other than that he has slept a lot... He said that he stayed up late last night and got up early...
Anyway, the Skype thing is iffy right now. There is wireless at the house, but I haven't been able to find a super reliable signal yet. In fact, I will probably need to hold my computer above my head as I press the send button -- no joke! I think that in the morning I will move around the house to find out where the hot-spots are and try it out for once.
Oh yeah, this house is larger than I expected. It is a two-story single home with two bathrooms, 4 bedrooms, a traditional tatami room, den, living room, dining room, and kitchen. My bedroom is about the size of my Portland office -- but it has some bulky furnitur that takes away some of the roominess, not cramped though. I have a western bed (single size), a chair, and a tiny desk. It's perfectly comfy.
Since this post is about a mile long already, I think that I should end it now -- and I am getting sleepy.
Good night!