Before We Say Goodbye

Toshikazu Kawaguchi's Before the Coffee Gets Cold is set in Funiculi Funicula, a windowless basement café in Tokyo where customers can travel back in time. Time travel is governed by strict rules: No matter what a traveler does in the past, the present cannot be changed. Travelers must not leave the chair, and they must finish the coffee before it goes cold, or they become a ghost bound to the chair forever. That chair is already occupied by such a ghost: a silent woman in a white dress who vacates the seat only to use the toilet. The café is run by Nagare Tokita and his cousin Kazu Tokita, the café's waitress, who pours the time-travel coffee. The novel follows four visitors who each travel to the past to say something left unsaid.

The Husband

Monji Kadokura, a retired archaeology professor, asks whether the rule preventing changes to the present also erases memories of what a time traveler says. Kazu explains that it does not: People retain what they learn but act as though they do not know, preserving the present through a kind of pretense. Relieved, Kadokura reveals that his wife, Mieko, has been in a persistent vegetative state for two and a half years after a brain injury and is expected to die soon. He confesses he spent his marriage pursuing archaeology around the globe, leaving Mieko to raise their three children alone. She never complained.

Kadokura travels back and finds his family gathered at the café for his and Mieko's wedding anniversary, a tradition Mieko kept every year without his knowledge. He warns them that Mieko will have an accident in about six months. His elder daughter erupts in fury at his bluntness. Kadokura turns to Mieko and tells her he always assumed he had no regrets, but after her accident he realized he was happy because of her. Mieko, tearful, replies she has always been happy too. As the coffee nears cold, he urges his children to cherish their mother. Back in the present, he sits at Mieko's hospital bedside, confessing that while he shed his regrets, he now hopes she will wake up.

The Farewell

Mutsuo Hikita visits the café to ask about sending his wife, Sunao, back in time. Apollo, their thirteen-year-old golden retriever, died the previous week. Apollo was like a child to Mutsuo and Sunao, who were unable to have children. In Apollo's final days, Sunao, exhausted from caretaking, fell asleep beside him and woke to find he had gone cold. She cannot forgive herself.

Sunao later visits the café. Kazu gives her a stirrer-like alarm device that sounds before the coffee goes cold. Sunao travels back and finds Apollo alive, dragging Mutsuo into the café with his tail wagging. She strokes his head and feels his warmth. For the first time, she tells Mutsuo what happened the night Apollo died.

When the alarm sounds, Mutsuo shares something Sunao never knew. Every night after Sunao said good night, Apollo would wait until she fell asleep, check on her, lick her eyes, and only then sleep himself. This habit began after nights when Sunao stayed up crying. Apollo was not abandoned at his death: He was doing what he always did, waiting for her to fall asleep first, then falling asleep himself for the last time. Sunao returns to the present transformed, realizing the feeling consuming her is not guilt but gratitude.

The Proposal

Hikari Ishimori, a twenty-eight-year-old bridal planner, recounts how her boyfriend Yoji Sakita proposed at this café on Christmas Eve one year earlier. She asked him to wait, privately uncertain he was the right person. Six months later, Yoji broke up with her, claiming he had met someone else. Shortly after, she received a cryptic email from him mentioning the café's time-travel rumor. Days later, she learned of his death from a preexisting heart condition.

When Hikari discovers the present cannot be changed, she prepares to leave. Kazu asks, "Are you sure you want to leave like that?" Hikari realizes that even if the outcome is fixed, Yoji's experience of his remaining months could differ if she accepts his proposal, since memories remain intact. Equipped with an alarm device, she travels back.

She finds Yoji at the adjacent table. He explains he brought her here because of the time-travel rumor: If his proposal failed, he would wait for her to come from the future after learning of his death. His heart condition is terminal, and he intends to break up with her before he dies so she will not marry out of pity; a marriage born of sympathy would have tormented him. Yoji places a ring on her finger. When the alarm sounds, he coaxes her to drink, joking he cannot afford a second ring. As she vaporizes, she shouts her thanks. His fading voice tells her he was happy to be married to her, even for the short time until the coffee went cold. The ring remains on her finger when she returns. When Nagare calls Yoji a wonderful boyfriend, Hikari corrects him: "He's my husband."

The Daughter

Michiko Kijimoto, twenty-five, recalls meeting her father, Kengo, at this café six years earlier. After her mother's death, Kengo's constant nagging drove Michiko to a Tokyo university, where she ignored his calls until he tracked her down. At their meeting, she threw his bag of souvenirs to the floor and screamed at him to leave. Three days later, on March 11, 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake triggered a devastating tsunami across northeast Japan. In their hometown of Yuriage, in Miyagi Prefecture, Kengo had been safely evacuated but returned for his bankbook, telling those who stopped him it held his savings for his daughter's wedding. He did not survive.

Her fiancé, Yusuke Mori, encouraged her to visit the café. When she learns she cannot save her father, she tells Yusuke she cannot marry him and flees. Kohtake, a nurse and café regular, learns that Michiko refuses to be happy because her father died for her sake. That evening, Kazu asks, "You wish to do this anyway?" Michiko wants to apologize. Kazu provides an alarm device and pours the coffee.

In the past, Kengo enters and apologizes for being late. This time Michiko says gently, "Oh, no, it's OK." She notices his wrinkles and gray hairs for the first time. Kengo asks her to share her troubles rather than worry alone, and Michiko realizes the expression she always read as anger was love. She tells him she is pregnant and her fiancé has proposed but confesses she does not feel she deserves happiness. Kengo replies, "I'm your father, I don't care if you swear at me, as long as you're fine. That's all that matters." He holds out the bankbook and says, "I guess now is the right time."

The alarm sounds. Michiko calls after him: "I'm glad I'm your daughter. Thank you." She drinks the coffee and returns. When Yusuke arrives, Michiko tells Kazu, "I think I want to be happy with this guy," gripping the bankbook from her father.

The novel closes after the café empties. Nagare emerges cradling his infant daughter Miki and tells Kazu that Kadokura's wife has miraculously woken up. He picks up a photo of his own wife, Kei Tokita, who died shortly after giving birth to Miki, and murmurs, "So fast. It's already been a year." As Kazu prepares formula, Kei in the photo appears, to Kazu at least, to look happy watching Nagare feed their daughter.