好英语网足不出户行天下：假装在东京
A few years ago, I walked through Tokyo’s neon-lit streets for the first time, wide-eyed and jet-lagged. It only took three days to learn some of the city’s secrets. If you can’t find the perfect noodle shop for lunch, for example, look up and you will see another dozen options, filling the upper floors of what you thought were office buildings. Or that famous places — like Shibuya Crossing, the intersection you’ve seen in 100 timelapses — are famous for a reason, but there’s so much more to learn by picking a metro stop at random and going for a long walk.
几年前，还在倒时差的我瞪大眼睛，初次走在霓虹闪烁的东京街头。要了解这座城市的一些秘密只需要三天时间。例如，如果你发现了一家完美的午餐面馆，那意味着楼上可能还有十几个可选择的店，它们都挤在一座你原以为是写字楼的建筑里。还有，那些著名景点的确名不虚传——比如涩谷路口，就是那个你在无数快放的街景画面中见过的那个交叉路口，然而随机选择一个地铁站下来四处走走，可以了解到更多。
This was supposed to be a big year for tourism for the city — already one of the world’s most visited — as it was set to host the now postponed Olympics and Paralympic Games. That, of course, did not happen.
这一年原本应该是东京——本已经是全球最热门的目的地之一——旅游业大热的一年，因为它将要举办现已推迟的奥运会和残奥会。显然，这件事没能发生。
With most of the world still confined to their homes, that Tokyo trip will have to wait for the millions of people who canceled flights and hotel bookings. In the meantime, there are ways to capture the spirit of a sometimes impenetrable, always fascinating, city. Perhaps, just for a night, these recommendations might even make you feel like you are there.
眼下世界上大部分地方的人们仍然被困家中，东京之行只能等待那几百万取消航班和酒店预定的人再次动身前来了。与此同时，我们还是可以设法去捕捉这座城市有时难以捉摸、永远令人着迷的精神。也许，在这一晚，我们的这些推荐甚至可以让你感觉身临其境。
Hear the city
聆听城市
I first met Kazuto Okawa, who performs under the name LLLL, outside a convenience store in the quirky neighborhood of Koenji on my first night in Tokyo. He was sitting on a curb in a circle of friends, his face obscured by long, disheveled hair. Over the years since that first encounter, his music — a blend of sugary pop hooks and space-age soundscapes — has become synonymous with the city for me. If those conflicting feelings of disorientation and joy that hit every visitor to Tokyo could be translated to sound, this would be it.
在到达东京的第一晚，我和艺名LLLL的大川和人（Kazuto Okawa，音）来到怪诞的高园寺一带的一家便利店前见面。他和一群朋友正坐在路边，蓬乱的长发遮住了脸。自从那次初次见面以来，他的音乐——一种甜腻流行旋律和太空声景的结合——在我看来已经是这座城市的代名词。每一个来到东京的人所感受到的那种迷乱与欢愉的矛盾感觉，如果能转译成声音，就是这样了。
When I asked Mr. Okawa what music best captures his home city, he directed me to the classics. The musician Keigo Oyamada, better known as Cornelius, is sometimes reductively called the “Japanese Beck” for the way he swoops between genres with ease. Every album is a journey, but for the most evocative of the city, Mr. Okawa suggests his 1995 album “69/96.” “It’s forever futuristic,” he said. “A perfect match to Tokyo.”
我问大川什么音乐最能捕捉他的家乡城市的神韵，他介绍了一些经典。人称“哥尼流”的小山田圭吾，有时还会被直接称为“日本贝克”(Japanese Beck)，以此形容他那种在不同乐风之间随意切换的风格。每一张专辑都是一段旅程，不过要体会最让人浮想联翩的东京，大川推荐他的1995年专辑《69/96》。“那是永远的未来派，”他说。“跟东京完美契合。”
If Cornelius is too out there for you, Mr. Okawa recommends “Kazemachi Roman” by Tokyo folk rock pioneers Happy End: you may recognize a song from the soundtrack to that great tribute to Tokyo, “Lost in Translation.”
如果不太能接受哥尼流，大川推荐听东京民谣摇滚先驱Happy End的《风街罗曼史》(Kazemachi Roman)，你也许能认出其中一首歌，曾被选入向东京致敬的名片《迷失东京》(Lost in Translation)。
To begin understanding the phenomenon that is Tokyo’s J-pop scene, Mr. Okawa says to start with Sheena Ringo’s “Kabukicho no joou.” “It captures the dark side of the city,” he said. “And it happens to be one of the most popular J-pop songs of all time.” For the flip side of the same pop coin — perhaps it’s a more lively summer night you are trying to recreate — he recommends Taeko Ohnuki’s aptly titled “Sunshower.”
要想对东京J-pop现象有个入门的理解，大川说首先从椎名林檎的《歌舞伎町的女王》开始。“它抓住了城市的阴暗面，”他说。“而且恰好也是有史以来最受欢迎的J-pop歌曲之一。”而要了解J-pop的另一面——也许你要重现一个更加活泼的夏夜——他推荐大贯妙子的《日光浴》(Sunshower)，标题十分贴切。
Cook at the dinner table
在餐桌上煮菜
No trip to Tokyo is complete without a whole lot of eating. While it may be hard to accurately recreate a bona fide Tokyo bowl of ramen or plate of sushi, there is plenty that you can do from home.
没有吃吃喝喝的东京之旅是不完整的。虽然精确复刻一碗真正的东京拉面或一盘寿司可能很难，但有很多美食是可以在家制作的。
Head to New York Times Cooking for a selection of quick and easy dishes, from yakitori (yes, you really can make it at home) to nori chips (perfect with a cold Japanese lager).
上纽约时报烹饪版来看看从鸡肉串（是的，你真的可以在家做）到海苔（搭配冰镇的日本啤酒为佳）的一系列快捷简单的菜肴。
For something more involved, and seasonally appropriate, follow the lead of Motoko Rich, The Times’ Tokyo bureau chief. “With the weather getting cooler, it’s time to break out the butane burner for shabu shabu, a classic Japanese dinner that you can make and eat right at the table,” she said.
想要参与性更强的应季活动，请跟随时报东京分社社长素子·里奇(Motoko Rich)。她说：“随着天气转凉，是时候拿出用于涮涮锅的便携瓦斯炉了，涮涮锅是经典的日式晚餐，你可以在餐桌上边煮边吃。”
First, make a kombu dashi, a broth flavored with dried kelp, then take beef, tofu, vegetables and mushrooms and dip them into the bubbling liquid, making sure to swirl in the ingredients long enough that they cook through. “Although we can cook shabu shabu at home, it also reminds me of fancier mid-20th century-era restaurants in Tokyo, where the servers wear kimonos and carry regal platters to the tables.” Ms. Rich recommends this recipe from Just One Cookbook.
首先，制作昆布高汤——一种用干海带熬制的高汤，然后将牛肉、豆腐、蔬菜和蘑菇浸入煮沸的高汤，确保食材以足够的时间涮熟。“虽然我们可以在家做涮涮锅，但这也让我想起东京在20世纪中叶的餐厅，那时的服务员穿着和服，将富丽堂皇的拼盘摆上餐桌。”里奇推荐Just One Cookbook网站上的这个食谱。
Expand your literary horizons
拓展文学视野
If you want to lose yourself in Tokyo by curling up with a good book, we have plenty of recommendations, whether it is a long work of fiction you are after or more snackable short stories. There is more — a lot more — than Haruki Murakami. Ms. Rich recommends “Breasts and Eggs” by Mieko Kawakami. “I love the way Kawakami references real and recognizable, but not exoticized, Tokyo locations,” she said. “You feel in the know, reading it, rather than as if you are being introduced to a precious Other World. It is Tokyo as it is lived in, not a film set.”
如果你想通过沉浸在一本好书里来感受东京，我们有不少建议，无论你想读的是长篇作品还是易读的短篇故事。除了村上春树，还有很多——非常多。里奇推荐川上未映子的《乳与卵》。“我喜欢川上引用真实且可识别的、未被过度渲染的东京地点，”她说。“你读的时候感觉自己身在其中，而不是好像被带到了一个稀罕的他者世界。这是人们生活的东京，而不是一个电影拍摄现场。”
See the city on the screen
在屏幕上观光
If an evening of TV and subtitles is what you are after, start with the binge-worthy “Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories” on Netflix. The show is about the customers who pass through a tiny counter-service restaurant that is only open from midnight to 6. At turns heartwarming, hilarious and melancholic, it is a moving portrait of Tokyo after dark. If the opening title sequence doesn’t make you feel good, check your pulse: it is ASMR for the soul.
如果你想要的是看一晚上带字幕的电视节目，那就从Netflix上的《深夜食堂：东京故事》(Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories)开始追剧吧。这个节目讲述的是走进一家仅在午夜至6点营业的吧台小餐厅的客人们的故事。穿插着温馨、搞笑和伤感的瞬间，它是入夜后活灵活现的东京肖像。如果片头片段都没有让你感觉良好，检查一下你的脉搏：它就像灵魂的ASMR。
When it comes to movies, as Mike Hale, a Times’ television critic, said, “Tokyo is simultaneously the most cosmopolitan and the most intensely local city you can imagine, and that’s a perfect combination for storytelling, as directors from Kurosawa to Kiarostami to Sofia Coppola have shown.”
在电影方面，正如时报的电视评论家迈克·黑尔(Mike Hale)所说：“东京是你所能想象到的最国际化同时又极其本土的城市，这对于讲述故事是一个完美的结合，就像从黑泽明到基亚罗斯塔米再到索非亚·科波拉(Sofia Coppola)所展示的那样。”
Where to start then? You can’t skip Akira Kurosawa, the influential filmmaker whose career spanned almost six decades. Mr. Hale recommends “Stray Dog” (1949), shot in Tokyo in the aftermath of World War II. He describes it as “a walking tour of the city in sheer survival mode.” Next, try “Tokyo Drifter” (1966) by Seijun Suzuki. “Suzuki’s stylized yakuza story sets traditional themes of honor and corruption against a jazzy, jagged, surrealist distillation of the rapidly changing city,” he said. Finally, for something more contemporary, watch the Cannes Palm d’Or-winning “Shoplifters” (2018) by Hirokazu Kore-eda. In Mr. Hale’s view, the film, about a family of grifters, “shows both the glittering modern metropolis and the shadow world just beyond the neon.”
那么从哪开始呢？你不能错过富有影响力的电影导演黑泽明，他的职业生涯跨越了近60年。黑尔推荐二战后在东京拍摄的《野良犬》(Stray Dog, 1949)。他将其描述为“以纯粹的求生模式徒步游览这个城市”。接下来，试试铃木清顺的《东京流浪者》(Tokyo Drifter, 1966)。他说：“铃木风格化的黑社会故事以一个超现实浓缩版的灯红酒绿、飞速发展的城市为背景，围绕着传统的荣誉与腐败的主题。”最后，想要来些具有现代气息的作品，可以看是枝裕和获嘎纳金棕榈奖的《小偷家族》(Shoplifters, 2018)。在黑尔看来，这部关于一家子骗徒的电影“同时展示了璀璨的现代大都市及霓虹灯照耀不到的阴暗世界”。
Get lost in the virtual world
沉浸在虚拟世界中
While Japan’s most internationally famous video gaming figure may be an Italian plumber with a taste for mushrooms, there are also plenty of games more grounded in real-life Tokyo than Super Mario Bros. Brian Ashcraft, an Osaka-based senior writer at the gaming website Kotaku, recommends the expansive “Yakuza” series, which follows Kazuma Kiryu as he makes his name in the underworld. The Yakuza games are action-packed, but with dance battles, karaoke sessions and laugh-out-loud dialogue, they are also unabashedly silly. “This year has resulted in all events and trips to Tokyo being canned,” Mr. Ashcraft said. “The Yakuza games do a fantastic job of bringing parts of the city to life. These obsessive, digital recreations mimic the idea of Tokyo. For me, that’s good enough.”
虽然日本最具国际声誉的游戏人物可能是喜欢吃蘑菇的意大利水管工，但除了《超级马里奥兄弟》以外，还有许多以东京真实生活为背景的游戏。游戏网站Kotaku的资深作者、住在大阪的布莱恩·阿什克拉夫特(Brian Ashcraft)推荐已推出许多代的《如龙》系列，主角是一步步征服地下世界的主角桐生一马。《如龙》游戏充满了打斗，但比舞大赛、唱KTV环节和令人捧腹的对话也是极具尴尬的乐趣。“今年导致东京所有的活动和旅行都被砍掉了，”阿什克拉夫特说。“《如龙》在将城市的一部分活现方面做得非常出色。这些令人痴迷的电子消遣重现了东京的本质。对我来说，足够了。”