The Rules
You must drink the entire cup of coffee before this happens to it.
What is gets cold?
The quiet, expressionless waitress who is the only one capable of pouring the time-travel coffee.
Who is Kazu Tokita?
The total number of large antique clocks on the café walls, all showing completely different times.
What is three?
Fumiko’s boyfriend, Goro, leaves Japan to pursue a game development job in this American city.
What is Boston?
This is the official, melodic name of the basement café where the entire book takes place.
What is Funiculi Funicula?
No matter what you say or do while in the past, this can never be altered.
What is the present?
The medical IT project director who wants to go back to fix her last conversation with her boyfriend.
Who is Fumiko Kiyokawa?
The vivid, colorful, non-coffee beverage that Hirai always orders at the counter.
What is melon soda (or cream soda)?
Fusagi desperately wants to travel to the past to give his wife this item before his memory completely vanishes.
What is a letter?
Reflecting its origins as a stage play, this is the total number of chapters (and main stories) that make up the novel.
What is four?
While traveling through time, you are forbidden from leaving this specific piece of furniture.
What is the chair?
The nurse who frequently visits the café to look after her husband as his memory fades.
Who is Kohtake?
The exact title of the novel that the Ghost in the chair is constantly reading.
What is The Lovers?
Hirai is consumed by guilt because her younger sister, Kumi, tragically died in this manner.
What is a car accident (or traffic accident)?
Oddly enough, the café stays completely cool during the brutal summer heat despite having none of this technology.
What is air conditioning?
You can only meet someone in the past who has physically done this specific thing.
What is visited the café?
The flamboyant bar owner who keeps dodging her younger sister's requests to return home.
Who is Yaeko Hirai?
The specific reading material that Fusagi is always flipping through in his corner seat.
What is a travel magazine?
In the final chapter, Kei makes the unique choice to travel into the future to see this person.
Who is her daughter (or Miki)?
The magical coffee can only be poured by a female member of this specific family line.
What is the Tokita family?
If you let your coffee go completely cold, you will permanently become one of these.
What is a ghost?
The large, imposing, yet secretly gentle owner of the café who is married to Kei.
Who is Nagare Tokita?
The specific color of the handkerchief that Kohtake clutches tightly when she is feeling distressed.
What is lilac?
The ghost in the chair got stuck there originally because she traveled back to visit this deceased person.
Who is her husband?
Goro has this distinct physical feature on his face that makes him incredibly self-conscious around the beautiful Fumiko.
What is a scar on his head (right eyebrow)?