WIT Life #184: NYT mag Haruki Murakami profile and yaeba
Translating/Interpreting, Uncategorized, WIT Life, Writers 
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WIT Life is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
This weekend’s NYT featured two interesting Japan articles in the magazine and Sunday Styles section. The former features the country’s living cultural treasure novelist Haruki Murakami, whom the article’s author spends time with in Tokyo to dissect his newest book 1Q84 as well as his older works.
The latter article discusses the popularity of 八重歯 (yaeba), or double teeth that look that fangs (aka “snaggleteeth”). Apparently this fashion calls not for perfect smiles, but unstraight teeth. Women are asking dentists to affix plastic fronts to their real teeth to create artificial yaeba, as shown here in the picture.
Upon asking two young Japanese women who were visiting the city about yaeba, they said it was the first they had heard of it. I’ll see what further informal surveys reveal about whether this is a real trend, or just something being sensationalized by the media.
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