Time Travel Is Futile (Situational Irony)
In the opening section of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, a woman named Fumiko wants to travel back in time to redo her disastrous last conversation with her boyfriend, Goro. Kazu explains that the strict rules of time travel dictate that there is nothing a person can do while visiting the past to affect the future, which has led journalists to dismiss the cafe's time travel as futile. In this instance of situational irony, Fumiko's expectation of repairing her relationship with Goro is undermined when she learns there is nothing she can do to prevent him from leaving her.
Time Travel Might Alter the Future (Situational Irony)
Despite believing there is nothing she can do to affect her present, Fumiko goes back in time to the last conversation she had with Goro. Fumiko suppresses her desire to beg him not to leave her, and she seems resigned to the fact that she can't do anything to change the outcome of the conversation. However, Fumiko hears Goro ask her to wait three years for him to return, at which point she may take him out for coffee. Upon returning to the present, Fumiko realizes that while her present is no different, her time travel may have altered the future after all. In this instance of situational irony, Fumiko's expectations are undermined again by the revelation that time travel may not be entirely futile.
Kumi Suspects Something Has Happened (Dramatic Irony)
In the third part of the novel, Hirai’s sister Kumi dies in a car accident on her way home from trying to visit Hirai in Tokyo. When Hirai travels back in time to meet with her sister, Hirai's friendliness prompts Kumi to ask whether something has happened, as she suspects there must be a reason behind Hirai’s sudden willingness to meet. In an instance of dramatic irony, the reader and Hirai know that Kumi will die in several hours, but because Hirai can't change this fact, she withholds the information from Kumi, leaving Kumi oblivious.
Goro Has Returned (Dramatic Irony)
In the final part of the novel, Kei travels into the future to meet Miki, the daughter she will lose her own life giving birth to. Upon arriving at the cafe, Kei sees that a man she has never met is working behind the counter, and she notices the large burn scar on his forehead. In this instance of dramatic irony, the reader understands that the unknown man is Goro, Fumiko's partner, who has come back from America to be with Fumiko. Kei, however, is oblivious to the man's significant role in the first part of the novel, and to the fact that Fumiko has been granted her wish of being reunited with him.
