好英语网京都期待外国游客回归，但有一些礼貌的建议
In the months before March 2020, the food sellers in Kyoto’s Nishiki market often wished for an end to the seemingly endless stream of photo-hungry visitors from abroad who always seemed to be underfoot.
2020年3月之前，京都锦市场里的食品商贩往往并不是那么欢迎看起来没完没了的外国游客，他们不停拍照，似乎还总是挡道。
“We weren’t used to foreign tourists,” said Nobuyuki Hatsuda, who leads a business alliance promoting the shopping street in the city center, where vendors sell a dizzying array of traditional Japanese foods, carefully displayed and attractively packaged.
“我们不习惯外国游客，”初田信行说，他领导着一个商业协会，推广这条位于市中心的商店街。锦市场的商家出售一系列令人眼花缭乱的日本传统食品，精心陈列，包装诱人。
在疫情暴发之前，京都的清水寺不仅以宏伟的建筑和壮观的城市景色闻名，也以拥挤著称。
Nishiki has long been a working market, and the parade of visitors — rifling through the meticulously arranged merchandise, haggling with frazzled shopkeepers and blocking storefronts with their luggage — interfered with the flow of daily business, driving away locals who had long done their shopping on the street.
本来好好的一个市场，络绎不绝的游客把精心陈列的商品翻乱，与焦头烂额的店主讨价还价，行李还堵住了店铺的入口，这都扰乱了锦市场的日常经营，赶走了长期在这条街上购物的当地人。
But then the pandemic hit. The tourists — along with their money — evaporated, and sellers had a change of heart, said Hatsuda, who sells kamaboko, a fish cake often formed into delicate pink and white loaves.
然而，新冠疫情很快袭来。初田说，游客连同他们的钱一并消失，商家也改变了想法。他卖的是“蒲鉾”(kamaboko)，这是一种粉白相间的半圆形鱼糕。
That will soon change, however. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said last week that the country would further ease border controls in October, eliminating a cap on daily entries and allowing tourists to travel independently.
不过，这种情况很快就会改变。首相岸田文雄上周表示，日本将在10月进一步放松边境管制，取消每日入境人数上限，允许游客自由行。
As tourism slowly returns, Kyoto, like other famous tourist destinations worldwide, is grappling with how to accommodate the crowds without sacrificing quality of life for those who call the ancient capital home.
随着旅游业慢慢复苏，和世界上其他著名的旅游目的地一样，京都正在努力解决一个问题——如何既不影响这座古都本地居民的生活质量，又能接纳如潮的游客？
In the absence of a clear solution, Kyoto’s government is betting on a change of perspective: After years of promoting “omotenashi” — a Japanese word for meticulous hospitality — it’s trying to take more time for self-care.
在没有明确解决方案的情况下，京都政府将赌注押在改变观点上：在提倡“款待”(omotenashi)——日语中一丝不苟的待客之道——多年后，现在它试图更多地关注自身。
“Kyoto isn’t a tourist city, it’s a city that values tourism,” Daisaku Kadokawa, the city’s mayor, said during a recent interview at its city hall, where he wore the formal kimono that has become a trademark during his almost 15 years in office.
“京都不是一个旅游城市，而是一个重视旅游的城市，”市长门川大作最近在市役所接受采访时说。他当时穿着正式的和服，这在他近15年的任期内已经成为一个标志。
Growing popularity
人气高涨
Kyoto is home to several globally known companies such as Nintendo and Kyocera, and has produced more Nobel Prize winners in the sciences than any other city in Japan. But in the years leading up to the pandemic, it had become dependent on the flood of tourists that bumped, clattered and pushed through its streets.
京都是几家全球知名公司的所在地，比如任天堂和京瓷，也为日本贡献了最多的诺贝尔科学类奖项得主。但在这次大流行发生之前，这座城市就已经开始依赖大量的游客，他们喧哗吵闹，挤满了京都的街道。
Starting from a base of around 10 million in 2013, the number of foreign visitors had more than tripled by the pandemic’s start, according to government data. Nearly a third of them traveled to Kyoto, where the tourism industry employed one of every five workers. Taxes from the sector comprised nearly 13% of the city’s revenue.
根据政府数据，2013年到访日本的外国游客人数约为1000万，而在大流行开始前，这一数字增长了两倍多。其中有近三分之一的游客前往京都。在京都就职人口中，每五个人就有一人在旅游业工作。该行业的税收占京都市财政收入的近13%。
But locals quickly became fed up with what they called “tourism pollution.” Suitcases jammed the aisles of city buses. Eager visitors harassed geisha’s apprentices, maiko, for photographs on their way to work. And lost tourists stumbled into people’s homes while searching for their Airbnbs.
但当地居民很快就对他们所称的“旅游污染”感到厌烦。城市公交车的过道上挤满了行李箱。过分热情的游客骚扰外出工作的舞妓（学徒阶段的艺伎），要与她们拍照。迷路的游客在寻找他们的Airbnb旅馆时还会闯入居民的家里。
Social media, especially, shaped tourism in the city. And not for the better.
尤其是，社交媒体塑造了这座城市的旅游业。而且不是向着好的方向。
Masutami Kawaguchi, who offers private English tours of the city, said that — before the pandemic — his clients’ itineraries were almost entirely determined by Instagram. Tourism became laser-focused on the city’s famously picturesque areas, with people getting off the train at Kyoto Station and then rushing to the two or three best photo spots — the bamboo groves of Arashiyama, the orange gates winding up the mountain behind Fushimi Inari shrine and the golden pavilion at Kinkakuji temple — creating traffic jams and massive crowding in the surrounding areas.
京都的私人英语导游川口益民（音）说，在大流行开始前，他的客户的行程几乎完全由Instagram决定。人们在京都站下车，然后赶往两三个最佳摄影点——岚山的竹林、伏见稻荷大社背后山麓上绵延的千本鸟居和金阁寺的金色楼阁，这造成了交通堵塞，也令这些景点附近的区域人满为患。
Looking to curb some of the worst problems, in 2018 the city cracked down on investors who were snatching up traditional houses in residential neighborhoods and converting them into Airbnb rentals.
为了遏制一些最严重的问题，京都在2018年对那些在居民区抢购传统的日式住宅，然后将其改造为Airbnb出租的投资者进行了打击。
The pandemic’s damage
大流行带来的损害
In spring 2020, Japan slammed its borders shut. The fire hose of foreign money turned off, and Kyoto, which had long struggled with financial problems, found itself on the verge of bankruptcy.
2020年春天，日本关闭了边境。外国资金不再大量涌入，长期挣扎于财政问题的京都发现自己已经处于破产边缘。
The city got a taste of life without tourists, and the combination of the coronavirus and red ink was “a double punch,” Kadokawa, the mayor, said.
门川市长说，这座城市品尝到了失去游客的生活的滋味，而新冠病毒和赤字加起来是“一次双重打击”。
At the beginning of the pandemic, “people in the city were saying, ‘We’ve returned to the old Kyoto, isn’t that great?’” said Toshinori Tsuchihashi, the director of the city’s tourism department.
大流行开始的时候，“人们都在说，‘我们回到了以前的京都，这不是很好吗？’”京都市旅游政策总监土桥聪宪说。
But, as the economic damage mounted, residents “have come to recognize tourism’s importance.”
但随着经济损失加剧，居民“已经认识到旅游业的重要性”。
Many businesses have yet to recover. Before the pandemic, it was nearly impossible to get a reservation at one of the many restaurants lining Pontocho, an atmospheric alleyway running parallel to the Kamo River in Kyoto’s city center. But on a recent weekend night, “for lease” signs hung in darkened shop windows, and many of the terraces looking out on the water sat unused.
许多生意都没有恢复。大流行之前，想在先斗町林立的餐馆中订到一个位子几乎是不可能的，先斗町位于京都市中心，与鸭川平行，是一条富有情调的小巷。但在最近的一个周末晚上，黑暗的店面橱窗里挂着“出租”的牌子，许多可以眺望鸭川的露台都空荡荡的。
With no legal options for instituting hard limits on visitors, the government hopes to dilute traffic so it is less concentrated in the same times and places. Planners are also discussing how to fix problems, such as crowded city buses, that aggravate residents. So far, however, the initiatives mostly consist of soft measures such as trying to educate visitors in Kyoto’s traditional “morals” and hoping for the best.
政府没有对游客进行硬性限制的法律选项，他们希望能够稀释交通，使其不那么集中在同一时间和地点。旅行社也在讨论如何改进那些令居民不满的问题，比如避免让公交车变得过分拥挤。但到目前为止，这些举措主要还是一些软性措施，比如试图用京都的传统“道德”教育游客，并希望得到最好的结果。
In that spirit, Nishiki market has decided it will try to encourage tourists instead of admonishing them, exchanging its list of “don’ts” for a list of “pleases.” Visitors who scan a large QR code at the entrance are presented with a list of suggestions for enjoying the market and rewarded with free Wi-Fi for reading it.
本着这样的精神，锦市场已经决定，它将努力鼓励游客，而不是告诫他们，把“不要这么做”的清单换成“请这么做”。在市场入口，游客如果扫描一个大的二维码，就会获得一份如何享受锦市场之旅的建议清单，阅读后可获得免费Wi-Fi奖励。
Kyoto is anticipating the inevitable return of those guests with a mix of longing and apprehension, said Takeshi Otsuki, a general manager at Japanese travel giant JTB.
日本旅游业巨头JTB的一名部门经理大槻刚说，京都正怀着一种夹杂了渴望和忧虑的心情，期待着这些游客不可避免的回归。
“We’re hoping the number of visitors increases gradually, and we have a soft landing,” Otsuki said.
大槻说：“我们希望游客数量的增加是渐进的，并且我们有一个软着陆。”