Status Updates From Il paese delle nevi

There is a certain type of indirect speech, a vagueness perfected by Japanese, that reveals someone to be secretly wise or tediously bashful. The last two dozen pages seem to be filled with Shimamura and Komako swiftly changing topics, discussing other people rather than speaking plainly about their own situation. Kawabata fills in the rest of the story with poetic passages about the ski village to misdirect readers.