'Look. I want you to listen, and listen carefully. OK?'
'What?' Fumiko’s body tensed up.
'You can go back. It’s true… you can go back, but…'
'But…?'
'When you go back, no matter how hard you try, the present won’t change.'
In the first part of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Fumiko desperately wants to go back in time one week to redo her last conversation with her boyfriend. However, in this exchange Kazu dashes her hopes of repairing the relationship by revealing a crucial catch to the cafe's time travel: no matter what you do in the past, you can't change the circumstances of your present. Contrary to the majority of time-travel narratives, where minor alterations to the past bring about extreme historical changes, Funiculi Funicula's rules dictate that time travel is—at least ostensibly—futile.
The gist of the article was as follows. The cafe’s name was Funiculi Funicula. It had become famous, with long queues each day, on account of the time-traveling. But it wasn’t possible to find anyone who had actually gone back in time, because of the extremely annoying rules that had to be followed. The first rule was: The only people you can meet while in the past are those who have visited the cafe. This would usually defeat the purpose of going back. Another rule was: There is nothing you can do while in the past that will change the present. The cafe was asked why that rule existed, but their only comment was that they didn’t know.
When mulling over her decision to go back in time, Fumiko recalls TV programs and journalistic articles about the cafe's magical properties. In this passage, the narrator summarizes an article that dismisses the cafe's time-traveling potential because of the strangely strict rules in place. Consistent with Kazu's unwillingness to explain to customers why the rules exist, the article states that no explanation is given. With this frustrating reticence, Kawaguchi provokes the reader's intrigue as they read further in the hopes of understanding the reasons behind the cafe's mysterious reputation.
Hirai lowered her voice further.
‘How were the test results?’
Not replying to this question, Nagare briefly scratched the top of his nose.
‘They were bad?’ Hirai asked more sombrely.
Nagare’s expression did not falter.
‘After looking at the results, they decided she doesn’t need to be hospitalized,’ he explained in a low mumble, almost as if he was talking to himself.
By dividing the novel into four sections, Kawaguchi puts a different protagonist at the center of each part. Because of this, seemingly inconsequential supporting characters such Kei, Hirai and Nagare play minor roles in the first part, but become the focus of the narrative in the third and fourth parts. In this exchange, Fumiko overhears the ostensible supporting characters discussing in cryptic terms Kei's medical condition: a weak heart. Their discussion foreshadows the revelation that Kei's pregnancy is putting her life at risk.
'You just have to wait,’ Kazu said, as if she could hear Fumiko’s thoughts.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Every day, there is just one moment when she goes to the toilet.’
‘A ghost needs to go to the toilet?’
‘While she’s gone, you can sit there.'
After learning that a person can only time travel when sitting in a particular seat in the cafe, Fumiko impatiently wants to get the ghost woman to vacate her seat. In this exchange, Kawaguchi injects an unexpected moment of comedy into the narrative as the Kazu explains that Fumiko's only option is to wait around for the ghost to use the toilet. In an instance of situational irony, Kazu undermines Fumiko's expectations of what a ghost does and doesn't do.
'It doesn’t change the present, right?’
‘That’s right.’
‘But what about the things that happen later?’
‘I’m not sure what you’re saying.’
‘From now on…’ Fumiko chose her words. ‘From now on – what about the future?’
Kazu looked straight at Fumiko. ‘Well, as the future hasn’t happened yet, I guess that’s up to you…’ she said, revealing a smile for the first time.
Fumiko’s eyes lit up.
Despite knowing she can't do anything to change her present circumstances, Fumiko goes back in time and alters slightly the tense conversation she had with Goro. Although she fails to ask him not to leave for America, he asks her to wait three years for him to return. Upon returning to the present, Fumiko confirms with Kazu that she still might have changed her future for the better. In a rare moment, Kazu drops her cool demeanor and smiles at Fumiko, indicating that Fumiko may receive her wish of getting back together with Goro after all.
Fusagi had early onset Alzheimer’s disease, and was losing his memory. The disease causes rapid depletion of the brain’s neural cells. The brain pathologically atrophies, causing loss of intelligence and changes to the personality. One of the striking symptoms of early onset Alzheimer’s is how the deterioration of brain function appears so sporadic. Sufferers forget some things but remember other things. In Fusagi’s case, his memories were gradually disappearing, starting with the most recent.
In the second part of the novel, a nurse named Kohtake grapples with her husband's failing memory. In this passage, the narrator comments on Fusagi's early-onset Alzheimer's, a rare form of Alzheimer's that strikes people under age sixty-five. One of the factors of Fusagi's deteriorating short-term memory is its sporadic nature; this means that Fusagi will sometimes remember that Kohtake is his wife, and other times treat her as a stranger.
'But it’s really OK… honestly,’ Kohtake hastened to add, waving her hand reassuringly. ‘Hey guys, I’m a nurse. Look, even if my identity is totally erased from his memory, I’ll be part of his life as a nurse. I’ll still be there for him.'
On the day Fusagi finally fails to recognize Kohtake as his wife, Kohtake goes to take a drink of sake at the bar with Kei and Kazu, with whom she is friendly. Kohtake waves off their sympathy and insists that because she is a nurse she is prepared to treat her husband as a patient. However, unbeknownst to her, Fusagi has predicted this outcome. Rather than have her treat him as a patient, he wants her to stay with him only if they remain husband and wife, regardless of whether he can recognize her.
'I wonder who that was,’ Kei muttered. She retrieved the plastic convenience-store bag and straw hat from Kazu and retreated to the back room.
Kazu kept staring at that chair where the woman in the dress was sitting. It was clear by the look on her face that something was bothering her. This was the first time a customer had come from the future to meet Nagare, Kei, or Kazu. There had never seemed to be a good reason why anyone would want to go back in time to see one of the cafe staff members who were always in the cafe. Yet a girl had just come from the future to meet Kei.
In the third part of the novel, an unknown girl travels back in time to take a photo with Kei. The girl doesn't tell Nagare or Kazu who she is or why she is there, and drinks her coffee before Kei can inquire. In this passage, Kazu questions why someone would bother time traveling to meet one of the people who work in the cafe. The moment foreshadows the revelation that the girl is Miki, Kei's as-yet-unborn daughter, and she has come to take a photo with the mother she never gets the chance to meet.
In the photo, Hirai was standing in front of the inn. With her hair in a bun, she was wearing a pink kimono, indicating her status as the owner of Takakura. ... Hirai was smiling like she didn’t have a care in the world. She had written that things were still awkward between her and her parents but standing next to her were her father Yasuo and mother Michiko.
After traveling back in time to meet with her sister before her sister's death, Hirai resolves to uphold a promise to return to the family home and help run her parents' inn. Two weeks later, Hirai emails Kazu a photo of herself working alongside the parents she had been estranged from for nearly two decades. Despite the tragic loss of her sister, Hirai finds happiness in repairing her relationship with her parents and living up to the promise she made to Kumi. Even though she was unable to go back and prevent Kumi's death, she returned to the present with a new perspective on her sister and herself.
'Thank you,’ Miki said with the broadest of smiles. ‘Thank you for having me. Thank you…’ She looked at Kei and quickly held up a peace sign. ... At that moment, Kei’s heart sang with happiness: she was the mother of this child. She wasn’t just a parent – she was the mother of the girl standing before her. She was unable to stop the tears from gushing. I finally understand. The present didn’t change for Kohtake, but she banned everyone from using her maiden name and changed her attitude towards Fusagi. She would be with Fusagi to continue being his wife, even though she had vanished from his memory. Hirai abandoned her successful bar to rejoin her family. While repairing her relationship with her parents, she was learning the traditional ways of the inn from square one. The present doesn’t change. Nothing about Fusagi changed, but Kohtake came to enjoy her conversations with him. Hirai had still lost her sister, but the photo she sent to the cafe showed her looking happy with her parents. The present hadn’t changed – but those two people had. Both Kohtake and Hirai returned to the present with a changed heart.
In the fourth section of the novel, Kei travels forward in time fifteen years and meets her daughter, Miki. Although initially shy, Miki thanks Kei for sacrificing her life to give birth. Miki gives the peace sign with her fingers—the same gesture Kei herself so often uses. In this passage, Kei is overcome with emotion as she realizes the benefit of time travel. For herself, Fumiko, Hirai, and Kohtake, visiting the past or future has given them a new perspective on the difficulties they face. The time travel doesn't change their material circumstances in the present, but it does strengthen their hearts. In this way, Kawaguchi establishes that the cafe's strict rules do not make time travel futile; instead, people benefit in subtle but significant ways.
