BY NICOLAS LIBERMAN
A couple of years ago, I decided to celebrate the New Year in Japan with two friends.
We heard that Tokyo wasn’t that fun during the holidays—throw in the fact that we couldn’t find a place to stay—so we drifted to Kyoto and Kobe instead. Aboard the Shinkansen, we could see the temperature drop the closer we got to Kyoto.
Soon, we arrived.
When we stepped out of the station, huge ice flakes began falling, like a storm was coming. I remember wondering whether my beaten-up compact camera could handle the cold. The wind picked up and suddenly, we were in the midst of a small blizzard. We had to bend to avoid being carried away. With nobody on the streets, the city seemed frozen by the weather. We finally decided to call it a day and spend the night in a traditional house, our backpacks filled with instant noodles, hoping that the wind will subside.
Next morning, luckily, the wind dropped. The city was covered with a white silence. We went to Fushimi Inari Shrine, the Temple of 1000 Gates. Snow was drifting like white curtains between each gate. When we came back to the city, it was as if the city never woke up. We only met a few residents on our way to the temples.
As we split up to wander the city in our final hours, I plugged in my iPhone and put on the oh-so-cliche-but-too-perfect-not-to-do-it track: Alone in Kyoto by Air. On our way to Kobe, I couldn’t help but stare at the serene landscape passing in front of my train window. The snowing ceased and each house, road and field seemed to be sleeping under a soft white cover. Eventually everything was swallowed by the high speed of the train.
幾年前，我決定和兩個朋友去日本歡度新年。
我們聽說東京在節假日不是那麽有趣——而事實是我們找不到一個住的地方——所以我們轉而去了京都和神戶。踏上新幹線，我們可以看到氣溫在快到京都時有所下降。很快，我們就到了。
當我們踏出車站，大片的雪花開始飄下，像是一場暴風雪即將來臨。我不確定我那部破舊的小相機是否能夠扛得住這個寒冷。起風了，突然之間我們就處在了一場小的風雪中。我們不得不彎著腰以免被風帶走。街上空無一人，這座城市像是被凍住了。我們最後決定今天就先這樣，然後背著裝滿方便面的背包，在一個傳統民居裏度過了一晚，同時希望著風快平息。
隔天早晨，幸虧風停了。這座城市被一種白色的寂靜所覆蓋。我們去了伏見稻荷大社，一座千門寺廟。雪花飄飄，像是浮蕩在每扇門之間的白色窗簾。當我們回城的時候，這座城市像是從未醒來。在去寺廟的路上，我們也只見到了幾個居民。
在我們分頭漫步這座城市的最後幾個小時裏，我插上iPhone的耳機，播放了一首雖然老套但再合適不過的曲子——Air 的 Alone in Kyoto。去神戶的路上，我情不自禁地盯著車窗外平靜的風景。雪停了，每一戶人家，每一條路，每一片田地，都像是睡在一層柔軟的白色覆蓋下。最終，一切都在列車的高速裏被吞沒。
Nicolas Liberman is a Paris-born traveller living and working for the past 4 years in Shanghai as a graphic designer. You can browse some of his most recent pictures and work on his website www.nicolas-liberman.fr.
Nicolas Liberman 是一位在巴黎出生的旅行者，過去4年他以平面設計師的身份居住在上海。你可以在他的網站上瀏覽到他最新的圖片和作品 www.nicolas-liberman.fr.
