Shelley Tanaka: Hello, my name is Shelly Tanaka. In Japanese, Tanaka means in the middle of a rice patty, which means that in Japan, there are lots of people with this last name, and actually, the proper way to say it in Japanese is Tanaka with no stress on any particular syllable. Although my grandparents were born in Japan, my parents were born in Canada, and I was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. In grade school, some kids called me Smelly Tobacco. Other kids called me Shelly Belly. I preferred Shelly Belly.