A few comments to interjechis is not more formal.  Sama is only for 

people at a higher level than you.

I believe (someone coreect me, please) that it's about as formal as 

san.  I've 

always mentally translated it as "lord" or "sir", which is arguably 

going too 

far, but it gives an idea...

This is actually pretty close. It's NOT a "more formal" honorific. It 
just denotes a lot more respect. You might call your college 
classmate "Yamaguchi-san", but if you were talking to, say, your 
great-grandmother, who you only see once a year and don't know well 
at all, you would say "obaba-sama". 

Which is a great segue to the next topic...

I've never seen this that I can remember.  I usually see o- attached 

to 

inanimate objects or verbs.

Not exactly...it also attaches to nouns referring to people. For 
example, the word for "father", with NO honorifics attached, and used 
to refer to one's father, is "tou". For respect, add o-, then add -
san, and you have "otousan". 

More notes on  -kun and -chan:

I didn't paste from the letter this is a reply to, but the author of 
it had it pretty much together, except for one thing: while -kun IS 
commonly used to refer to girls lower in station than onself, it is 
MOST COMMONLY used for boys, and when used in reference to a female, 
it is ONLY used BY males. Females referring to other females will use 
-chan almost exclusively.




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