Tales From the Cafe

“Kazu stared at him in this state. ‘What happens afterwards?’ she asked quietly. She wanted to know what would happen after he revealed that he was not her true father.

Gohtaro felt a jolt in his heart. The waitress won’t be fooled by lies. He spoke while staring into space, as if he had prepared his answer. ‘I can only see it being the end of my role,’ he said with quiet resignation.”

This quote shows the third-person omniscient narration used in the novel. Both Kazu’s and Gohtaro’s thoughts are revealed in the same passage. While Kawaguchi uses dialogue and gestures more than interiority, subtle references to characters’ mental and emotional states, like Gohtaro feeling “a jolt in his heart,” are used sparingly to create emphasis. The passage also foreshadows the conflict in Gohtaro’s story and his decision to remain in Haruka’s life, as well as Kazu’s journey regarding her guilt about her mother’s death.

“His hands, his body, were becoming one with the steam from the coffee. It had not been his surroundings that were rippling and shimmering; it had been him. Suddenly, his surroundings began to move so that everything above him was falling past him with amazing speed. Experiencing all this, he screamed out, ‘Stop stop!’ He was no good with scary rides—the mere sight of them was enough to make him swoon—but unfortunately for him, his surroundings seemed to be going past him faster and faster, as time wound back twenty-two years.”

Kawaguchi provides a visceral physical description of the process of going back in time. The connection between Gohtaro’s disappearing body and the coffee’s steam grounds the magical description of time travel in the commonplace elements of the café. The narrative voice remains practical and matter-of-fact despite the content. The novel therefore emphasizes the “banalities” of time travel, situating it in the magical realism genre.

“Upon seeing the woman’s face, Gohtaro felt startled. Could it be? He had seen her face before. She totally resembled the woman in the white dress who had been sitting in this very chair reading a novel before he came to the past.”

In this passage, Gohtaro realizes that he is seeing the woman in the white dress before she became trapped in the café and that she is Kaname, Kazu’s mother. This detail has not been revealed in the narrative or the previous book in the series, so the reader discovers this information along with Gohtaro. It foreshadows Kazu’s character arc throughout the rest of the novel.

“Left behind, Kazu was silently looking at the woman in the dress reading her novel. ‘I’m sorry, Mum, I still…’ she suddenly whispered. The ticking of the three wall clocks reverberated loudly as if in tune with Kazu. Always…Always…”

The use of ellipses in this passage leaves Kazu’s feelings about her mother open-ended while emphasizing the interminable nature of her mother’s tenure in the café and her own vigil there. Clocks function throughout the novel as a symbol of the variability of time. In this passage, they emphasize how time affects Kazu, who remains continually in the café because of guilt about her mother’s death.

“Japanese also has onomatopoeic expressions to communicate sounds, and mimetic expressions to convey states that do not produce sounds. But whether it’s the onomatopoeic sala-sala sloshing of the flowing river and the byuu-byuu blowing of the wind, or the mimetic shin-shin to describe the quiet settling snow and kan-kan that expresses the beating down of the sun’s rays, all these words evoke the mood of the world around us.”

This passage provides an atmospheric description of the Japanese landscape through the onomatopoeic expressions used to describe it. The passage appears at the beginning of Chapter 2 and is an example of the novel’s narrative technique of moving from general to specific. At the beginning of chapters, the narrative frame zooms out to a general scene or vague description of the people in the café. Then, it progresses to more specific descriptions of the main characters at play in the chapter. It produces the effect of surveying the café and setting before getting gradually closer to the chapter’s central characters.

“The woman placed the novel in one corner of the table and reached her hand to the coffee cup. Spying this, Kazu pulled out a novel from under the counter and approached the woman. ‘This one probably won’t be completely to your taste,’ Kazu said as she placed the book in front of the woman and collected the one left on the table. She had carried out this action over and over, so often that each movement was done with procedural swiftness. But while she did, her usual cool expression was temporarily replaced by the look of someone about to pass a carefully chosen present to a special someone with the hope that it will bring them joy.”

This passage connects with the novel’s The Importance of Ritual theme. Kawaguchi presents ritual as being both positive and negative. For Kazu, the ritual of replacing her mother’s novels is simultaneously negative, as it represents her guilt and self-imposed suffering, and positive, as it emphasizes her love for her mother.

“Yukio averted his gaze and inhaled deeply. ‘So, in other words, you die…is that what you are saying?’ he asked, as if he was just making sure. No one had ever asked for clarification that becoming a ghost was equated to death before. Until then, Kazu had been able to answer any question without changing her expression. But for that moment only, her expression faltered. And it truly was only for a moment. After letting out a shallow breath, in the time it took for her eyelashes to flutter a couple of times she adopted her usual cool persona again.

‘Yes, that is correct,’ she replied.”

Kawaguchi clarifies the rules of the world and answers the question of exactly what Kaname has become for both the reader and the characters in this passage. It foreshadows the dark use of the time travel magic that Yukio has planned: to let the coffee get cold as a way to die by suicide. The passage characterizes Kazu’s usual collected demeanor and emphasizes the extent to which her mother’s death has affected her.

“This precarious tension was what Yukio was going through when one month earlier he learned of [his mother’s] death. At the news, he heard a tautly stretched string snapping inside his head.” 

Kawaguchi uses figurative language sparingly throughout the novel, but instances of it tend to have intense emotional resonance. Here, he uses a metaphor of the sound of a string snapping to represent Yukio’s distress when learning about his mother’s death.

“As if all the taut lines holding him together had come undone, his body felt completely drained of strength. Not having slept properly for the last month might also have been a factor. His fatigue had reached its limit. Now, everything would end. Finally. He felt satisfaction. Now, it’s all much easier…and a sense of having been released. When suddenly…Bip-bip-bip-bip bip-bip-bip-bip…A softly beeping alarm sound was coming from his cup.”

Kawaguchi builds tension in this paragraph through the use of italics to represent Yukio’s thoughts as he is about to die. The ellipses and the sound effect of the alarm increase the suspense as Yukio makes his choice. The timer in the cup is also important to Kazu’s character: that she puts the heat sensor in the coffee cups of anyone who is traveling to visit someone who has died indicates her own loss and sympathy for others who could find themselves in a similar situation.

“‘What Kazu did…’ she began softly, with a very happy smile that Yukio had never seen before—she certainly showed no trace of fear, or any other emotion that one might expect having been told of her death through Kazu’s message, ‘was to assign me a final task—one that only I can do.’ Yukio remembered that when Kinuyo talked about the times he had nearly died, she used to say with tears in her eyes, ‘I wasn’t able to do anything for you.’ Whether it was illness or accident, she could never forget the torment of waiting helplessly. ‘It’s time you returned to the future,’ Kinuyo said kindly with a smile.”

This passage combines backstory with present events to provide a layered representation of Yukio and Kinuyo’s mother-son relationship. Having been tortured by experiences when she wasn’t able to protect her son, Kinuyo is not upset to learn she is about to die because she is given the opportunity to protect her son. Kawaguchi does not provide explanation through narrative but rather reveals these details as the characters think about or learn them. This makes the scene more experiential.

“Yet had everything now looked fresh to his eyes. His despair at life had metamorphosed into hope. His outlook had changed unrecognizably. The world hasn’t changed, I have.”

This passage is an example of the Changing the Future Versus Changing the Self theme. Rather than having prevented his mother’s death, the change in Yukio from despair to hope has saved his own life.

“‘I’ve finished!’ exclaimed a gleeful Miki, gripping a pen. Sitting at the counter next to Kyoko, she had just finished writing a wish on a vertically folded piece of paper known as tanzaku. ‘I wish that Daddy’s feet would start smelling nice,’ Miki read out energetically.”

This passage is an example of a comedic beat within the novel. Despite the novel’s sometimes-heavy themes and tone, particularly regarding complex family relationships and perspectives on death, the novel also employs humor to alleviate tension and highlight the more joyful aspects of life.

“‘If you remain devastated like this, then your child will have used those seventy days in vain.’ His message was not one of empathy. He was pointing out a way Asami could change the way she thought about the grief that she was experiencing. ‘But if you try to find happiness after this, then this child will have put those seventy days toward making you happy. In that case, its life has meaning. You are the one who is able to create meaning for why that child was granted life. Therefore, you absolutely must try to be happy. The one person who would want that for you the most is that child.’”

Kawaguchi presents a unique view on pregnancy loss, and loss in general, through Kurata’s character. This passage is central to the theme of Happiness as a Choice throughout the novel. It suggests that choosing to be happy not only benefits the individual but is also the most effective way of honoring the dead.

“First he told her, ‘It is something that I can trust only you to do.’ Then he announced, ‘I am going to go to that café and travel to two and a half years in the future. If I’m dead, could you bring Asami to the café? Fumiko gave Kurata a complicated look upon hearing him say, If I’m dead.”

The novel features an ensemble cast that moves into and out of narrative focus. This passage is an example of a character reappearing for an important role after their main part has ended. Fumiko’s story is the opening section of the first novel in the series, and she reappears when Kurata asks for her help. This enables Kawaguchi to add to Fumiko’s narrative (the reader learns that she did marry Goro, for example) by bringing her back into the plot.

“It must have started snowing outside, as there was a scattering of snowflakes on her head and shoulders. Kurata was in short sleeves, having come from summer in the past. When Asami suddenly showed up in a coat bearing the signs of a white Christmas, it wasn’t clear what season their meeting was taking place in.”

This passage adds clarifying details to the phenomenon of meeting someone from a different time. The inclusion of snow emphasizes that people may travel not only across years but also across seasons. Throughout the novel, seasons function as a symbol of personal and temporal change.

“When she heard mention of the coffee being cold, she probably imagined that temperature to be cold like tap water. But there are other people who think a coffee is cold when it is below skin temperature. So, when it comes to that rule, no one really knows what ‘when the coffee gets cold’ means. Kaname probably just thought the coffee hadn’t gone cold yet. However, no one knows the truth of the matter. Everyone had told the young Kazu, ‘Kazu, you’re not to blame.’ But in her heart, she felt…I’m the one who poured Mum the coffee…She could never erase that fact. As the days passed, she began to feel…I’m the one who killed Mum.”

Coffee functions as a symbol throughout the novel and series. It indicates the dichotomy between the everyday act of drinking coffee and the magic of time travel. Here, it highlights that nothing can be done to change Kaname’s fate—no matter how many cups of coffee Kazu pours, it doesn’t undo the fateful cup she poured for her mother. This passage is important to Kazu’s character trajectory because it explains her guilt about her mother’s death in detail.

“In the middle of the night, everything was silent. As the ceiling fan rotated slowly, Kaname was as usual quietly reading the novel that Kazu had provided. Resembling a still-life object that had been blended into a painting of the café, Kazu was completely motionless—except for a single teardrop, running down her cheek.”

This passage concludes Chapter 3 with an emotional, visual scene. Kawaguchi uses the simile of the still-life object to suggest that both Kaname and Kazu are trapped in the café as if elements of art or décor rather than being able to continue living their lives.

“‘I think you should have the baby,’ he said, directing his thin almond-shaped eyes at Kazu as she went about her work. ‘I think Kaname definitely—’ CLANG-DONG The sound of the doorbell cut him off midsentence, but neither Nagare nor Kazu said, ‘Hello, welcome.’”

Kawaguchi builds tension and intrigue in this passage. The reference to “you should have the baby” is the first clear indication that Kazu is pregnant. Before more details can be revealed, though, Nagare and Kazu are interrupted, which increases suspense. The passage also includes the “CLANG-DONG” of the doorbell. The sound effect functions as a stage direction in the novel’s theatrical mode of demonstrating characters’ entrances and exits from the café.

“As soon as he had sat down, the crying man was suddenly enveloped in a puff of vapor. And then he seemed to vanish, sucked up into the ceiling. What? As Kiyoshi stared with bulging eyes, a woman wearing a white dress appeared in the chair that the man had vanished from. These bizarre events seemed like something you might see in a magic show. What happened just now?”

This passage features the use of italics to articulate Kiyoshi’s thought process. The omniscient point of view is present throughout the novel; however, the characters’ thoughts are only revealed at significant moments. Here, the thoughts occur during a moment of observing time travel from the outside. The passage is unique because the experience of time travel is usually described from the point-of-view of the character experiencing it rather than how it appears to another observer.

“‘For these thirty years, I have lived with a constant regret. If only I had kept my promise, my wife would not have died, and everything would have been different. But…’ He paused and slowly turned his gaze to Kazu. ‘No matter how much I regret it, it won’t bring back the dead.’ Moved by Kiyoshi’s words, Nagare’s eyes widened. He looked at Kazu.”

This passage is important to the novel’s theme of Happiness as a Choice. Kiyoshi tells Kazu about the inefficacy of punishing oneself for actions that can’t be changed, which is an important part of her impending transformation. Kiyoshi functions as a mentor character by investigating, then, articulating one of the key lessons another character needs to learn.

“‘It never even occurred to me that Miki would pour my coffee,’ he said.

‘Last week she turned seven,’ Nagare replied, looking toward the kitchen.

‘Oh, now that you mention it’ Kiyoshi said, suddenly recalling. The pourer of the coffee not only had to be a woman of the Tokita family, but she also had to be at least seven years of age. Kazu had once told him this. At the time, he hadn’t considered it especially important information and had forgotten it.”

Kawaguchi consistently reveals details about the rules of the novel’s world through the characters’ thought processes rather than exposition. This means that the reader learns about how time travel works as other characters think about it, which makes the novel more experiential and maintains its quick pace. This passage is also an example of The Importance of Ritual as a theme throughout the novel and indicates the value of lineage and passing on tradition.

“‘Ah!’ said Miki. ‘Look!’ She crouched down and picked something up from the floor. Clenched between her thumb and index finger was a single cherry-blossom petal. It must have been carried in on someone’s head or shoulder. Glimpsing a single flower petal is another way of noticing spring. Miki held out the petal in her fingers. ‘Spring is here!’ she announced, and Kazu smiled gently.

‘Ever since that day when Mum never returned from the past…’ Kazu began, in a calm voice. ‘I was always afraid of being happy.’”

This passage describes seasons as a symbol of personal change. Because Kazu begins her speech about her guilt over her mother’s death when Miki notices the cherry blossom petal, the concepts are connected. This also foreshadows Kazu’s eventual move toward choosing happiness and her personal spring.

“The three large clocks on the wall each showed different times. The shaded lamps tinted the interior with a sepia hue. Kazu drew in a deep breath in this café where time seemed to stand still and placed her hand on her stomach. ‘I am going to be happy,’ she exclaimed. As she said this, Kaname, while still looking down at her novel, smiled warmly. It was the same smile that Kaname had given Kazu when she was alive. ‘Mum?’ said Kazu, and at that moment Kaname’s body, like vapor rising from freshly poured coffee, rose upward.”

This passage is a climactic moment in Kazu and Kaname’s storylines. By deciding to be happy, Kazu seems to release her mother from her entrapment in the café as a ghost. The simile of her body floating upward “like vapor rising from freshly poured coffee” connects the magical with the everyday.