Oh no they di'int!
I really ought to sit down sometime and ask my host parents more about themselves. I'd rather it seem like a conversation and not a drill, though, so I'm not sure how to "pry without prying," so to speak. Here are a few interesting things I've learned in the last week:

-Host mom used to frequent an English Language "conversation" chat room with the Internet Handle TRIXIE.

-Host dad went to college for five years, one year longer than the "acceptable practice" in Japan, as a history major. Though he would have stayed longer to avoid work, he dropped out after his fifth year without graduating for a "secret reason." These are his own words. (Can anyone sense an unwed pregnancy?)

-My host parents are liberal enough that because of strongly principled opposition, they have never once visited the Yasukuni shrine.