Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi Summary

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi – Summary

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, which is a very, very famous book. This book is a Japanese book and it has been translated into English. It has three or two parts too—maybe, I don't know properly and I haven't even read it yet.

So this book has four stories in it. One is "The Lovers," second is "Husband and Wife," third is "Sisters," and the fourth story is about a "Mother and a Child." This book is all about time travelling. Time travelling is actually very convenient—someone has to travel in the past and someone in the future. So its stories are—let's see what it is. This book is very hyped, so why is it hyped and what is its story? Let's see why people like it so much. So let's start.

This story starts with a pair of lovers, a boy named Goro and a girl named Fimo. They meet in a cafe because Goro had to talk about something important to Fimo. Fimo comes to know in advance that maybe Goro is going to talk to her about breaking up, but it turns out to be true because Goro gets a job in a company in America and he was going to talk about shifting there. 

Fimo actually wanted to stop him and told him not to go, but she couldn't say no because she didn't want to be brave and didn't want to show her bravery in front of him. But she wanted to stop him at any cost. But they talk there and Fimo leaves from there and they go to America.

But after one week, Fimo feels that she could have stopped Goro. She realizes that the cafe where she went can be used for time travel. So she goes there and sees those people. She says that she has to go to the past a week ago. They give her a long list of rules. The first rule was that the time is very short. The second rule was that they can meet only those people who have visited that cafe in the past and they cannot meet those people who have not visited that cafe.

And the third rule was that a coffee is given there and to come to the present, one has to drink that coffee before it gets cold. The fifth rule, which was a major problem, was that there was only one chair there where they could sit and time travel. When the woman agrees to the past and says it is okay, I just want to meet him and tell him how I am feeling, then the woman is told that there is only one chair there and someone is sitting on that chair. It is very difficult to remove her from there; she does not move from there. So the woman gets very disappointed.

And when she goes there, they first warn her not to force her. Then she says why. Then they say she is a ghost. Then Fimo gets very shocked—how can she be a ghost? She has legs and I can even touch her, then how is it possible? And she is sitting there reading books, then how can she be a ghost? She tries a lot of force to remove her from there and that woman gives her a curse and something happens to her, that means she falls on the ground.

And something starts happening to her but after some time she gets free from that curse. Then the waitress of that cafe tells her that she gets up from that chair only once in a day at the same time when she goes to the toilet. Then only you can sit on it and time travel. So she was waiting for her to go. Then there was another man sitting in that cafe. He was also waiting for time travel. He was sitting there and he was also in the line. That man was very weird. He was just drinking coffee after coffee and was just sitting.

And he was writing something and seeing it in the magazine. He saw that all this was happening there. Then that man leaves from there. That woman goes to the toilet and Fimo sits there and she travels time. Then she goes to the past and then she had thought that she has to tell a lot to Goro and she has to bring him back somehow.

She has to meet him but before that, the waitress had told Fimo another rule—that you can do anything but you cannot change the present. You can go to the past but you can do anything there, but you cannot change the present. Because of that, it will remain the same as it is. Still, Fimo wanted to give it a try. Then she meets Goro there and then Goro talks to her. Goro tells her that we will meet again after 3 years and we will live together. Then her coffee started getting cold, so she drank it and then she came back to the present. Then this part ends.

The second part is the story about a husband and his wife. The owner of that cafe was named Kei and her husband was named Nagare. Kei's husband and wife have a cousin named Kazu and the waitress is Hirai. There was a woman there whose name was Kotake and Kotake's husband's name was Fusa-Gi. Fusa-Gi is a man who used to come to that cafe every day and drink coffee there. He wanted to travel in time and meet his wife.

But he had forgotten his wife's name too. So he used to carry an envelope around where he had written something which he had to tell his wife. So his wife is actually Kotake and she is in the same cafe but he doesn't remember. So those people, meaning Fusa-Gi, since they could not time travel, told his wife, i.e. Kotake, that you should time travel and go to the past and see what he wants to tell you. Maybe it could be a love letter as well.

So actually, to know that, Kotake goes to the past and meets her husband from 10 years back when he did not have any symptoms of Alzheimer's. Then they were not very happy with him because he used to forget some things—he used to forget his house, where he was, important things.

 Kotake was a nurse so she could tell that he had some problem. She was consulting doctors behind his back and came to know that he can have a disease like Alzheimer's due to which he forgets everything. So she goes into that time travel and meets Fusa-Gi. When they talk, they see her happy. They start talking like before. Fusa-Gi feels that maybe she has come from the future. 

Then Fusa-Gi asks her, “Do you know?” Then Kotake tells him that yes, I have come to know that you have this disease. He gives her the envelope that he wanted to give. Then Fusa-Gi tells Kotake, “Drink this coffee otherwise you can never go back.” So she drinks it and she comes back to the present. 

Then she reads the envelope, on which it was written that “It is my wish that we should stay together even if I don’t remember you, so please stay with me.” Something like this was written. Kotake gets very emotional and she stays with him. So this was the second story.

The third story is about the sisters. There are two sisters in it. One was Hirai and the other was Kumi. Hirai was a waitress of the same cafe and Kumi is her sister who had actually run away from Hirai’s house. Kumi used to come there again and again to pick her up but Hirai did not want to go to her house. Kumi used to try again and again that maybe her sister would take her home. So one day Kumi comes to meet her.

And when she was going back home, Kumi meets with an accident. In that accident, Kumi dies and Hirai feels very sorry that her sister died because of her. She feels very sad. Then she wanted to travel in time to say sorry to her for behaving so badly with her. She also wanted to go home with her. So she travels time to promise all this, but she is not able to tell her everything. She is only able to tell her that she is ready to go home with her. Then she drinks coffee and comes to the present.

The fourth story is "Mother and Child." It is actually related to Kei and Nagare and their family. Kei, who was the owner of that cafe, had some heart problem and could never do any heavy work. She had to stay very light. She gets married to Nagare and then she conceives. 

Then the doctors tell her not to do all this, saying, “If you deliver, then you can die, or your baby can die, or both of you can die. Even if your delivery is successful, your life will be at risk. So you should not do this.” But Kei does not listen. She gets very upset after hearing all this and decides that whether she stays or not, she has to meet her child.

So she decides that she wants to travel to the future. Everyone was travelling to the past, but she wanted to travel to the future. She wanted to go 10 years into the future. But some error happened and they went 15 years. They were not able to recognize anyone in their own cafe—who all are there and who is the new manager of that cafe. So she asks, “Where is Kazu?” They say they have gone very far.

Then she gets very irritated that she is not able to recognize anyone. She was about to go, but then suddenly someone enters the cafe. She sees a teenage school girl who comes there wearing a red colored apron and starts helping. She gets a call and then she talks with Nagare. 

Nagare tells her that she is our daughter, who is so healthy, very happy, and has grown very well. Kei becomes very happy. She wanted to talk a lot to her, but she could not talk for long because she had to go back to the present.

She is with her daughter. Her daughter’s name was Miki. She talks to Miki and Miki calls her "Mom." Then she cries even more. She gets very happy. Then Miki tells her, “I am very grateful that you brought me into this world.” Hearing all this, Kei also becomes very happy. She also says, “I am very, very, very honored that you are my daughter.” They talk, but she had to return to the present as soon as possible. So she drinks the coffee and then she comes to the present. This story ends here.

So Before the Coffee Gets Cold is a time travel story. Some people go to the past, some go to the future. In this book, people travel through time, meet, and then come to the present. But it does not say what happens after that. Can Fimo and Goro be together or not? There are many things—maybe they will be in the second parts too, which I have not read yet.

So this book is good. It is about time travel. It is a new concept. It is very good and yes—that is why its name is Before the Coffee Gets Cold. Because those people who went in the past—as long as that coffee is hot or warm—they must drink it to come to the present. 

If someone does not drink it—if the coffee gets cold—then those people remain there and they remain as ghosts, like that woman who was sitting on that chair. Those people will become like that woman. So for this reason, the name of this book is Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

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