The black dots on the lake are ducks. Looks like they feel cold. 湖に浮かんでいる黒い点々は鴨です。 寒そう…
Today my husband and I went for a drive to Lake Neusiedl. I went there a couple of times in Summer but this was the first time during the cold season. The lake I know is quite vibrant and amusing with many visitors. Swimming, sailing, children playing everywhere on the shore… But now it is so cold and looks quite lonely with few people around compared to Summer.
Lake Neusiedl is located in the Easternmost Austrian province of Burgenland with a surface area of about 320 square kilometres. A small part of it is located in Hungary. I heard it is the largest lake in Europe without an outflow. It could be called a giant pond. Because Austria has no access to an ocean, the existence of this lake is so appealing.
Partly the lake is covered with a thin layer of ice. Today’s maximum temperature was below zero. Maybe ice will spread quickly…
In the background you can see the Danube 向こうにドナウ河が見えます
Today is Christmas Day. Since Austria is a Catholic country, people mostly celebrate Christmas Eve on the 24th of December. I went to my husband’s family and we had a nice evening there. Since they live a little farther away, we rented a car to get there. Because we do not own a car, we mostly use carsharing when needed. Fortunately this time we had a voucher for a free weekend. That is why we decided to used the voucher for this weekend. Today we wanted to do a little trip. Since we have the car for the whole weekend, we talked and decided to have a little fun. Due to holidays all shops are closed but we just wanted to do a relaxed drive. Even though we wanted to leave much earlier we got kind of stuck at home and could only leave in the afternoon. Our destination was Krems, a small city about 60 km West of Vienna. Unfortunately the sun sets very early and also it suddenly got much colder with even snowfall starting. We wanted to go for a walk in the city centre but because of the cold I gave up on that idea. Despite all that I could take some pictures and I am quite satisfied with our short trip. I think about where to go to tomorrow…
Shopwindow of a famous Viennese Patisserie ウイーンの有名なお菓子屋さんのショウウインドウ
When I was about ten years old there was a children’s party in my neighbourhood in Japan. At the main hall in the district office many children gathered and received sweets. A young lady had organized our recreation activities and she sang Christmas songs for us. Before she started singing the famous “Jingle Bells” she gave us some instructions. She said that during the second half, we should exclaim “Yahoho!” between her melody. Back then I was very shy and that instruction was truly not suitable for me. Other children loudly exclaimed “Yahoho!” but I however only softly mumbled it. We followed that instruction but she said we were not loud enough and that we should exclaim passionately with a bigger voice. We again started to sing together and the lady always said “Louder!”. Because all the children were so loud, even I got some courage to loudly exclaim because with everyone being so loud no one would hear me. Compared to others my voice probably still was not too loud but to me that seemed like a personal revolution. I consciously used voice and joyful emotion at the same time for expression. As a classical singer now I always strive to express something in my music and therefore when I think back on that day, that is so interesting. It might be somewhat exaggerated but I could say that “Yahoho!” was my “artistic primal scream”. Again and again I am grateful to that lady who made us exclaim “Yahoho!”.
Shopwindow of a famous Viennese porcelain shop. 或るウイーンの有名な陶器店のショウウインドウ
Even though I am not of Christian faith I have fond memories of Christmas season.
When I was a small child, I attended an English language course for children. That was a Catholic church and nuns were giving the lessons. I was not highly diligent at studying English but I very much enjoyed the atmosphere there.
One time there was a large Christmas party and there were so many people there, adults as well as children. For the first time I entered the main hall and I vaguely remember it being quite dark and a solemn atmosphere. We children played a short holy night stage play, which also left an impression on me. Afterwards all of us enjoyed ourselves in a large room. There were large beautiful and funny human-shaped cookies with sugar coating. Such cookies I had never eaten before and I liked the taste so much. Those cookies seemed so unique because Scandinavian nuns had baked therm. Then all of us played “Bingo”. That was the first ever “Bingo” in my life. I understood the rules but I was too shy to loudly shout “Bingo!”. That is why I did not win anything… That is such a heartwarming memory.
Recently in Japan a famous person died suddenly under inexplicable circumstances. Often in such situations there are many speculations and this creates a lot of turmoil. Some people choose to end their own life. I myself think a lot about this and would like to know what exactly happened and so I frequently check the news. By doing that it is sadly impossible to recover her life. Maybe that person took the real reason with him/her and might never be fully revealed. Human life is always like that. Therefore I think it important to have a strong sense of self. Not being overly sad, happy, envious of others, etc. because of assumptions and speculations. How hard it is however…
On Kärntner Strasse, Vienna city centre, many people enjoying shopping. ウイーンの中心街、ケルントナー通りにも 沢山の人が繰り出し、買い物を楽しんでいます
Today is the last Sunday before Christmas 2021. Generally in Austria shops (there are some exceptions) are closed on Sundays. Today is an exception however and shopping is allowed! Because of the recent three week lockdown shops lost a lot of business opportunities and so the government gave a special permit to open for business today. Many people were out and about in the city and it seems that they really enjoyed themselves.
Many people around Stephansdom, the heart of Vienna. ウイーンの心臓、 シュテファン寺院の周りにも人が沢山Selling chestnuts and Christmas trees on Graben. グラーベンの栗売りとクリスマスツリー売り場Fiaker (horse carriage) in action. フィアカーもお仕事
Pictures by Yuka Simeno, December 19, 2021 in Vienna.
Knitted cap and shawl made by me. With a mask I almost look like a bank robber… 帽子とマフラーは自作です。 まるで強盗みたい…
My first Winter in Vienna was quite cold and there was a lot of snow. Since I did not bring any Winter clothes I had to buy some. In a shopwindow I saw a beautiful pastel purple pullover. I decided to try it on and entered the shop. Talking about it with a sales assistant, I was quite shocked by her response. She said that this colour was for blonde hair and that red would be best with black hair. Since Japanese people have mostly dark hair, I had not had those thoughts before. Furthermore I had always heard from my grandmother that adults should not wear red because that colour is too strong. I myself did not have strong judgment about colours of clothes, maybe I would enjoy wearing red too. But that time the pastel purple pullover really appealed to me and so I followed through with my decision to buy it. Not only at that shop but other sales assistants in Vienna recommended red items to me. Since I often encountered that situation I was prepared with the words ” In Japan everyone has dark hair and we want to wear different colours too”.
I spoke to a Japanese friend living in Vienna about it and she as well said that she had the same experience and that was annoying. She said that red colour is regarded as too strong for clothes. She even said that in her region people wearing too strong colours are regarded as eccentric and self- absorbed and that even society wants to ban this person. Another friend said it was so shocking to see Viennese people sometimes have a whole-body outfit in red such as traditional folk coats. She called this stlye “Hidaruma”, which means that when one catches fire the whole body is engulfed in flames.
Austrian Airlines’ red uniforms are also often heavily criticized by Japanese people. Many times people visiting me here in Vienna spoke about it like this. At international airports in Japan they saw airline staff dressed completely in red which they found shocking and thought about which airline they might belong too. Aboard Austrian Airlines they saw those staff members and were again really shocked by it.
Time passes and nowadays in Japan people like to wear many different clothes and I think preconceptions have diminished somewhat. Also now I can wear red without much inhibition but only because I really want to and not only because of hair colour.
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