Swiss Diary, Volume 2

At Lake Como, wisteria and magnolias bloom beside green water. Beyond the Bernina railway, snow still buries the Engadine. Tsujimura Isuke follows spring into the mountains, studies Segantini’s paintings, listens to cattle bells, and measures every landscape against the Alpine heights he longs to climb.

The second volume of Swiss Diary travels through Bellagio, Saint Moritz, Weesen, Innsbruck, Munich, Salzburg, and Upper Pinzgau before returning to Bern and Interlaken. Its leisurely encounters and sharp comic observations gradually become the detailed preparations for a summer expedition with a fellow Japanese traveler and Swiss guides.

As the party enters the glaciers above Grindelwald, rain, snow, sleeplessness, and avalanches reshape the journey. A cluster of edelweiss, evening light on icy ridges, and a lantern crossing a frozen snowfield bring the narrator’s pleasure and apprehension into vivid focus. News of approaching European war reaches even their remote hut.