12-6 东京

Tokyo

A state of the art financial marketplace, a metropolis 11 of exquisite 2 politenesses, a city that is monstrously 3 large yet has astonishing beauty in its details these are a few of the myriad 42 ways to describe Tokyo, and all contain more than a grain3 of truth.

Of all major cities in the world, Tokyo, with its ultramodern speed and its smattering4 of old Japanese haunts5, is perhaps the hardest to understand, to feel comfortable in, and to see in any single perspective. To begin with, consider the sheer, outrageous 5 size of it. Tokyo incorporates 23 wards 76, 26 smaller cities, 7 towns, and 8 villages altogether sprawling7 88 kilometers (55 miles) from east to west and 24 kilometers (15 miles) from north to south. The wards alone enclose an area of 590 square kilometers (228 square miles), which in turn house some 11.9 million people. More than 3 million of these residents pass through Shinjuku Eki, one of the major hubs8 in the transportation network, every day.

It's staggering to think what the population density 9 would be if Tokyo went up as well as out. Mile after mile, houses rise only one or two stories, their low uniformity broken here and there by the sore thumb of an apartment building. Space, that most precious of commodities, is so scarce that pedestrians9 have to weave in and around utility poles as they walk along the narrow sidewalks. Begin with that observation, and you discover that the very fabric 10 of life in this city is woven of countless 11, unfathomable10 contradictions.

Tokyo is the most impermanent of cities, constantly tearing itself down and building anew. Whole blocks disappear overnight. The next day a framework of girders is already rising on the empty lot. It's virtually impossible now to put up a single? family house in the eight central wards of the city; a plot of land alone costs more than the average person will earn in several lifetimes. Home owners live in the suburbs, usually an hour or more by train from their jobs. Only developers can afford land closer in -- for office buildings, condominiums11, and commercial complexes.

More than anything else, though, Tokyo is a magnet12. Money -- enormous amounts of it -- is of course the great attractor, and it is always looking for new ways of turning itself over. The great collapse 12 of 1992 left Japan's banks sitting on trillions of dollars of bad debt, and the economy has yet to recover, but the Japanese remain among the world's foremost consumers -- not merely of things but of culture and leisure. Everything shows up here, sooner or later: van Gogh's Sunflowers, the Berlin Philharmonic, Chinese pandas, Mexican food. Even the Coney Island carousel 1313 is here -- lovingly restored down to the last gilded 14 curlicue14 on the last prancing 1515 unicorn 1616, back in action at an amusement park called Toshima-en.

Now the magnet, this exciting, exasperating 17, movable feast of a city, is drawing you.

注释：

1. metropolis [mi5trRpElis] n. 大城市，大都会

2. myriad [5miriEd] a. 无数的

3. grain [grein] n. 一点儿，些微

4. smattering [5smAtEriN] n. 少数，寥寥几个，些许

5. haunt [hC:nt] n. 常去的地方

6. ward 6 [wC:d] n. （城镇、行政堂区等以下的）行政区，选区，区

7. sprawl 8 [sprC:l] vi. （城市等）无计划地扩展（或延伸）

8. hub [hQb] n. （兴趣、活动等的）中心

9. pedestrian [pi5destriEn] n. 步行者，行人

10. unfathomable [7Qn5fATEmEbl] a. 莫测高深的，不可理解的

11. condominium [7kCndE5miniEm] n. [美] = condo [kEn5dEu] [美口] 分套购置的公寓

12. magnet [5mA^nit] n. 有吸引力的人（或物）

13. carousel [7kArE5sel] n. [美] 旋转木马

14. curlicue [5k:likju:] n. （书法、图案等的）花饰，旋曲

15. prancing [5prB:nsiN] a. 腾跃的，腾跳的

16. unicorn [5ju:nikC:n] n. （传说中头和身似马、后腿似牡鹿、尾似狮、前额中部有一螺旋状独角的）独角兽

东京

一个高度发达的金融市场，一个高雅的礼仪之都，一个规模庞大但细微之处又美丽得令人惊叹的城市——有无数方式可以描述东京，而且各有各的道理。

　　东京，既有超现代的发展速度，又有少数老年日本人的流连之所，也许是世界大都市中，最让人琢磨不透、最不容易给人舒适感、最难从单一角度审视的城市。首先就是它令人震惊的规模：东京下辖23个区、26个小城市、7个镇、8个村，东西长88公里（55英里），南北宽24公里（15英里），仅城区就占地590平方公里（288平方英里），居住人口1190万，每天，居民中的300多万人要经过东京的交通网络的主要枢纽之一——新宿地铁站。

　　如果东京向上和向外发展，它的人口密度将是惊人的。在数英里长的地区里，建筑物都只有一层或两层高，在这一大片低层建筑中，不时极不合适地出现一座高层公寓楼。空间，东京最贵的商品，已变得如此稀缺以至行人在狭窄的人行道上不得不在电线杆间穿行。从上述观察开始，您会发现这个城市的生活结构交织着无数高深莫测的矛盾。

　　东京是一个最富变化的城市，它总在不停地拆，不停地重建。有时整个街区一夜之间就不见了，第二天在空地上已搭起了钢筋框架。现在想在8个中心城区内盖座独门独户的住宅简直是不可能的。仅一小块地就要花普通百姓几辈子的收入。人们到郊区安家，上班通常要乘一小时或更长时间的火车。只有房地产开发商才有实力在市里购地，盖写字楼、公寓楼和商业大厦。

　　尽管如此，东京仍是个具有吸引力的城市。金钱，大量的金钱当然就是巨大的吸引力，而且总是在寻求新的周转途径。1992年“泡沫经济”的破灭给日本银行造成了数万亿美元的坏帐，日本经济还在恢复之中，但日本人仍是世界上名列前茅的消费者，不仅在物质方面，而且在文化和休闲方面。所有东西早晚都会在这里露面，比如梵高的《向日葵》、柏林爱乐乐团、中国的大熊猫、墨西哥的美食，甚至连科尼岛的旋转木马——整修完好的腾跃的独角兽上还有镀金花饰，也重新在丰岛园游乐场内运行。

现在，这个既激动人心又令人恼火的时变时新的都市正在吸引着你。