鳥取,遊客罕至的“日本撒哈拉”

Shortly after I posted a picture on Instagram from the sand dunes of Tottori on the west coast of Japan, a friend from Brooklyn commented, “Where is this?”

我在Instagram上發了一張在日本西海岸鳥取的沙丘上拍的照片沒多久，布魯克林的一個朋友留言問，“這是哪裏？”

The subtext: This could not possibly be Japan, right?

潛臺詞是：“這不太可能是日本，對吧？”

With its steep hills of creamy golden sand and vast expanses ruffled into scalloped patterns by the wind, Tottori evokes a scene out of the Sahara. There are even camels to ride.

在鳥取，細滑的金沙堆成一座座陡峭的山坡，廣闊的地表被風吹成了扇形。讓人覺得這是在撒哈拉沙漠。這裏甚至還有駱駝可以騎。

Although these dunes are not the largest in Japan (those are in Aomori, in the north, and used for military exercises), the sand dunes of Tottori are the largest that are accessible to visitors.

儘管不是日本最大（最大的沙丘在北部的青森，用於軍事演習），但鳥取的沙丘是遊客可以接觸到的最大沙丘。

But even in Japan, the dunes are more famous for their literary connotations than as a travel destination. They were the setting for Kobo Abe’s classic novel “The Woman in the Dunes,” but among Japanese tourists, Tottori, the least-populated region in Japan, ranks just 43rd among 47 prefectures in attracting visitors.

然而，即便是在日本，這些沙丘的文學意義也比它們作爲一個旅遊景點更有名。安部公房(Kobo Abe)的經典小說《砂女》(The Woman in the Dunes)的背景就設在這裏，但在日本遊客中，日本人口最少的地區鳥取在47個縣吸引的遊客數方面僅排在第43位。

That makes it a very relaxing place for a getaway. We live in Tokyo, a city of immense crowds and towering buildings. But when I took a walk with my daughter along the dunes, it was easy to leave behind any sign of other people.

這讓它成了一個令人非常輕鬆的度假地。我們生活的東京人潮洶涌，高樓林立。但當我和女兒沿着沙丘散步時，輕而易舉地就能避開其他人。

One reason for Tottori’s absence of tourists is its relative isolation. While Japan’s system of shinkansen, or bullet trains, makes travel around the country extremely convenient, no lines stop in Tottori. But it is just over an hour by plane from Tokyo Haneda Airport, and there is a convenient bus that connects the airport in Tottori to the center of the modest city.

鳥取遊客罕至的原因之一是它相對偏僻。儘管日本的新幹線高速火車系統讓去日本全國各地旅遊都極其方便，但沒有線路在鳥取設站。不過從東京羽田機場坐飛機只需一個小時多一點，從鳥取機場到這座次小城的市中心有便捷的巴士。

Most hotels and restaurants are in the center of town, and the dunes are reachable by city bus as well as taxis. As the Tokyo bureau chief for The New York Times, I had come to report on the Sand Museum, where artists from around the world assemble every year to build massive sculptures from the distinctively moldable sand. The museum is open to the public from April through early January, and it is a delightful place to marvel at what sand can do in the hands of skillful artisans.

大部分酒店和餐館都在中心城區，從城區可搭乘巴士和出租車前往沙丘。作爲《紐約時報》東京分社社長，我是來報道砂之美術館(Sand Museum)的。每年，來自全球各地的藝術家聚集到這裏，用可塑性特別強的沙子創作大型沙雕。從4月一直到次年1月初，美術館對外開放。這是一個討人喜歡的地方，你可以感嘆沙子在技術高超的工匠手裏的用途。

The dunes are protected as a national park, and there is no charge to climb them. It’s a great workout for the thighs — in some places the sand reaches 165 feet. As in many places we go in Japan, I was impressed by the number of fit elderly people who could keep up with the rest of us.

沙丘所在的地方是一個受保護的國家公園，但爬沙丘不收費。這對大腿是很好的鍛鍊——有些地方的沙丘高達165英尺（約合50米）。和我們在日本去過的很多地方一樣，身體健康、能跟上我們其他人步伐的老年人的數量讓我印象深刻。

Although the dunes stretch for 10 miles along the coast, most visitors seem to stick to a fairly narrow area, climbing a steep hill next to a lagoon. Even the people watching was fun: We saw a man climbing in a business suit with a briefcase, as well as a group of millennials dressed in pink bodysuits kicking around a pink ball. And, well, why not?

儘管沙丘沿海岸綿延10英里（約合16公里），但大部分遊客似乎都堅持留在一個相當狹窄的區域，爬一座陡峭的小山，小山的旁邊有一個環礁湖。即便是看身邊的人也很有意思：我們看見一名男子穿着西裝、拿着公文包爬山，還看到一羣穿着粉色緊身衣的千禧一代在踢一個粉色的球。好吧，有什麼不可以的呢？

At the peak, my 10-year-old son enjoyed hurtling himself off the top of the dunes, trying to see how airborne he could get.

在山頂，我10歲的兒子喜歡從沙丘頂上衝下去，想看看自己可以飛多久。

Those who want more of that flying feeling can get their feet off the ground at Tottori Sakyu Sand Board School (like snowboards, but for sand) or try paragliding with the Tottori Sand Dunes Paragliding School.

想體驗更多這種飛翔感的人，可以去鳥取滑沙學校(Tottori Sakyu Sand Board School)學習滑沙（類似於滑雪，只是把雪換成了沙子），或是去鳥取沙丘滑翔傘學校(Tottori Sand Dunes Paragliding School)嘗試滑翔傘。

For sand boarding, you get a board, a helmet and about two minutes of instruction in how to bend your knees, grab your thighs and slide down a steep slope that bottoms out at the ocean. My son and husband caught on quickly, though they both had some spectacular wipeouts that left their faces covered in sand.

如果是滑沙，你需要一幅滑板和一頂頭盔，還要接受大約兩分鐘的指導，知道怎麼彎曲雙膝、抓緊大腿、滑下坡低跟海面持平的陡坡。我兒子和丈夫很快就學會了，但兩人都摔倒過，臉被埋進沙子裏，場面壯觀。

They also tried paragliding, carrying their parachutes on their backs on the walk from the boardwalk to the dunes. With a group of about a dozen others, they each took three or four flights during two hours on the dunes.

他們還嘗試了滑翔傘，在沿着木板路走到沙丘上時，將降落傘背在背上。跟十幾個人一起，他們在沙丘的兩個小時內分別跳了三四次。

We had an extra day and decided to venture away from the dunes, catching a bus to Uradome beach, which my 12-year-old daughter had scoped out on Instagram. As we walked from the bus stop down to the coastline and glimpsed the sea between Japan and the Korean Peninsula, we spotted a coffee sign and stepped into the charming Nijinoki Cafe, where Brazilian jazz played on a turntable and architectural magazines were piled neatly on a bench. The coffee was delicious, too.

我們有一天的富餘時間，決定離開沙丘，乘坐巴士到浦富海灘(Uradome beach)去，我12歲的女兒在Instagram上對這個景點進行了一番調查。當我們到巴士站下車，走到海岸線，觀看日本和朝鮮半島之間的海洋時，我們發現了一個咖啡館的標誌，然後我們就進入迷人的巖美咖啡廳(Nijinoki Cafe)。電唱盤播放着巴西爵士樂，建築雜誌整齊地堆放在一條長凳上。咖啡也很美味。

The husband and wife who worked behind the counter told us of a “secret” beach, so we decided to skip Uradome and explore. It was about a 25-minute walk east, where we found a trail to Kumaihama Beach. And indeed, when we arrived in the cove of turquoise water and soft pale sand, we enjoyed that rare treat in Japan: We were the only people there.

在櫃檯後工作的那對夫婦告訴我們這個海灘的一個“祕密”，所以我們決定跳過浦富去探索這個祕密。向東走約25分鐘，我們找到了去熊井浜(Kumaihama Beach)的小徑。實際上，在到達這個水清沙幼的海灣時，我們享受到了一個在日本罕見的待遇：這裏只有我們幾個人。