Grand Sumo
Grand Sumo as a Mirror of Japanese Society
- My magnum opus. This paper was written in my sophomore year (1999), a revised and extended English version of a paper I wrote in Nihonggo a year earlier. At that time, I had just graduated from my Japan-bashing stage to my Japanophile stage, and became a rabid, fainting sumo fan. Whenever a term paper was up I did all I can to slam-bang-force it into a sumo framework. The paper presented here was the most successful--in terms of the absence of mortified comments from the professor involved--so I thought I should upload it for your reading pleasure. =) Long, but worth the pain.

Truly Terrific Tokyo
Letter from Tokyo: Mr. G and Parkinson's Disease
by Teh Aik Hong - Aik Hong and I are from Malaysia and the Philippines, respectively, and while we are not so-called "native speakers" of English, it is the language we use most often. Both of us have the habit of reaching for Merriam Webster's when in doubt, and although we are multilingual, are very much aware that we can't live without English in all its idiosyncracies. In this letter Aik Hong laughs at some of the boo boos that arise when speaking this language that we can't run away from, try as we might.

The Nagoya Queen
Tour Guide Straight From Hell
- It's the year 2002 and here I am about to make another confession. I swore to myself and to my readers that this site will not be another one of those angst-ridden, narcissistic, tedious "weblogs", but then for some reason I feel the strong urge to apologize for something, and to do so in public. Since this website is the most public I could ever get, I would like to, with apologies to my readers who expect something less pathetic, make a public apology.

About this Site
The Webmistress
- Happy New Year! To celebrate I decided to put a new photograph in the About Me section. Har! The essay remains the same, however, for there isn't much to change. The new pic was taken in autumn, my absolute favorite time of year. I take comfort in memories of the season's warm red glow, especially during these cold and dreary winter months. (You might be wondering why I'm making a fuss about this wee little change. Well, there's a recent pic of me now, finally.)