For once, it looks like the Chikubushima High soccer team might have a shot at the national tournament (provided all their players actually show up to the matches)! Rakuichi may have the raw talent that makes him an INVALUABLE asset to this bizarre team, but his enormous ego interferes with his ability to make good decisions on the field. (Seriously, dude. Just pass the ball.) As Rakuichi continues to irritate the heck out of his teammates, the foundation of the team, Azuchi, is out of commission, and captain Matsuri is losing interest as the power of the principal's bribes wanes. With even tougher opponents to come, will the stars and supporting players of Chikubushima team manage to pull TOGETHER and secure victory?

Elementary school soccer whiz Rakuichi Nagahama drew national attention a few years back with his IMPRESSIVE athletic skills. After disappearing to Italy for three years, Rakuichi reluctantly returns to the remote town where he grew up. The local high school soccer team can't wait to get their hands on the prodigy, despite the fact that he was obviously a FAILURE in Italy. But Rakuichi's not sure he's ready to get back on the field. Sure, his best friend from elementary school (now a hot babe) can't wait to see him play again...and his childhood rivals are eager to have another go against him...and the entire school is counting on him...but how can Rakuichi live up to their expectations when he's sworn off the sport for good?

Preliminary Material -- PREFACE -- LIST OF PUBLICATIONS BY FREDERIK KORTLANDT -- TOWARDS A TYPOLOGICAL PROFILE OF THE ANDEAN LANGUAGES /Willem Adelaar -- THE ORIGIN OF ALTERNATIONS IN INITIAL PITCH IN THE VERBAL PARADIGMS OF THE CENTRAL JAPANESE (KYÔTO TYPE) ACCENT SYSTEMS /Elisabeth de Boer -- ARMENIANS AND THEIR DIALECTS IN ABKHAZIA /V.A. Chirikba -- ON THE POSITION OF BÁIMĂ WITHIN TIBETAN: A LOOK FROM BASIC VOCABULARY /Katia Chirkova -- LIVING (HAPPILY) WITH CONTRADICTION /Karen Steffen Chung -- THE LANGUAGE ORGANISM: PARASITE OR MUTUALIST? /George van Driem -- MONGOLIAN /-GAR/ AND JAPANESE /-GAR-/ /Roger Finch -- YENISEIC LANGUAGES AND THE SIBERIAN LINGUISTIC AREA /Stefan Georg -- HOW TO ORIENT ONESELF ON SAKHALIN: A GUIDE TO NIVKH LOCATIONAL TERMS /Ekaterina Gruzdeva -- KNOWLEDGE GRAPH ANALYSIS OF PARTICLES IN JAPANESE /C. Hoede -- FACTS AND FANTASY ABOUT FAVORLANG: EARLY EUROPEAN ENCOUNTERS WITH TAIWAN'S LANGUAGES /Henning Klöter -- THREE IRREGULAR BERBER VERBS: 'EAT', 'DRINK', 'BE COOKED, RIPEN' /Maarten Kossmann -- TEACHING PERSONAL REFERENCE IN JAPANESE /Riikka Länsisalmi -- DUAL NOMINALISATION IN YUKAGHIR: STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY AS SEMANTIC DUALITY /Elena Maslova -- THE ALTAIC AORIST IN *-RA IN OLD KOREAN /Roy Andrew Miller -- AVOIDING ABBA: OLD CHINESE SYLLABIC HARMONY /Marc Hideo Miyake -- VOICE IN TUNEN: THE SO-CALLED PASSIVE PREFIX BÉ /Maarten Mous -- CHUVAN AND OMOK LANGUAGES? /Irina Nikolaeva -- IF JAPANESE IS ALTAIC, HOW CAN IT BE SO SIMPLE? /Martine Robbeets -- BURYAT EVALUATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS /Elena Skribnik -- THREE TASHELHIYT BERBER TEXTS FROM THE ARSÈNE ROUX ARCHIVES /Harry Stroomer -- SYNTAX, RECURSION, PRODUCTIVITY - A USAGE-BASED PERSPECTIVE ON THE EVOLUTION OF GRAMMAR /Arie Verhagen -- LANGUAGE, BRAINS AND THE SYNTACTIC REVOLUTION /Jeroen Wiedenhof.

Reads from right to left in the traditional Japanese format.

Readers worldwide have long been drawn to the foreign, the exotic, and the alien, even before Freud’s famous essay on the uncanny in 1919. Given Japan’s many years of relative isolation, followed by its multicultural empire, these themes seem particularly ripe for exploration and exploitation by Japanese writers. Their literary adventures have taken them inside Japan as well as outside, and how they internalized the exotic through the adoption of modernist techniques and subject matter forms the primary subject of this book. The Alien Within is the first book-length thematic study in English of the alien in modern Japanese literature and helps shed new light on a number of important authors. Morton examines the Gothic, a form of writing with strong affinities to European Gothic and a motif in the fiction of several key modern Japanese writers, such as Arishima Takeo. Morton also discusses the translations of Tsubouchi Shoyo, Japan’s most famous early translator of Shakespeare, and how this most alien and exotic author was absorbed into the Japanese literary and theatrical tradition. The new field of translation theory and how it relates to translating Shakespeare are also discussed. Morton devotes two chapters to the celebrated female poet Yosano Akiko, whose verse on childbirth and her unborn children broke taboos relating to the expression of the female body and sensibility. He also highlights the writing of contemporary Okinawan novelist Oshiro Tatsuhiro, whose work springs from what is for Japanese an exotic subtropical landscape and makes symbolic reference to the otherness at the heart of Japanese religiosity. Another significant but equally overlooked subject is the focus of the final chapter, which analyzes the travel writing of internationally best-selling author Murakami Haruki. Murakami’s great corpus of work includes a one-volume study of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, which Morton discusses in detail. The Alien Within breaks new ground in its treatment of the exotic in modern Japanese writing and in its discussion of authors and work hitherto absent from critical discussions in English. It will be of significant interest to readers of literature and students of modern Japanese culture and women’s writing as well as those fascinated by the occult, Gothic fiction, and the exotic.

Anime/manga (Japanese animation and comics) have been increasing in popularity worldwide for decades. But despite being a global phenomenon, there’s been surprisingly little psychological research formally studying its devoted fanbase. In this book we aim to do just that with an overview of nearly a decade of research by fan psychologists. Otaku and cosplayers, genre preferences, hentai, parasocial connections, motivation, personality, fanship and fandom, stigma, and well-being – this book looks at all of these topics through a psychological lens. Many of these findings are being presented for the first time, without the jargon and messy statistical analyses, but in plain language so it’s accessible to all readers – fans and curious observers alike!

Azami has always been attracted only to boys, especially the handsome Gwyn. Intelligent, sporty, attractive and just a little older than Azami, she's sure he would be an ideal boyfriend. Then, on the day Azami finally gets the courage to confess her feelings, everything she believes is suddenly called into question when she finds out that Gwyn is actually a girl! Despite her initial shock at learning Gwyn’s secret, Azami quickly realizes that love transcends gender, putting her feelings for Gwyn before her previous prejudices. But it turns out Azami isn’t the only girl who’s got her eye on Gwyn!

'" Fujiwara is the school''s most admired student and captain of the volleyball team, but her reputation is at risk when she accidentally breaks the principal''s most prized possession, a priceless vase. Fellow student Miu witnesses the accident, and Fujiwara begs her not to tell. In exchange, she''ll do whatever Miu wants. It turns out that what Miu wants is to date Fujimaru! Although this wasn''t an arrangement that either girl expected, the two soon discover that breaking the vase may have been destiny''s way of bringing them together. "'