“Before the coffee gets cold Tales from the cafe” is the right kind of book that an exhausted-beyond-belief parent-teacher can finish on a rare afternoon off. And this I did.

Can meaningful change occur in the short time it takes for a cup of coffee to turn cold? #toshikazukawaguchi centered his book on this premise and presented a fascinating world of time travel in which characters sat on a particular seat in a cafe and jetted off into the past or future, hoping that that one last encounter with a loved one would would bring about clarity and closure.

As someone who lived in Japan for two years, I was immersed, yet detached from her society. Nonetheless, I appreciated reading about how all four characters who time travelled cared more about the #shiawase (happiness) of others than their own. All four of them were as different as night and day and had different reasons for time travelling, so feeling this commonality that bound them rather made me reminisce about my time in Japan.

I don’t know if it’s due to the fact that this is a translated work of fiction, but even when the characters were revealing their emotional upheavals and whatnot, the dispassionate writing style in which their feelings were unravelled would make you feel as if you are viewing them through some kind of sociological microscope rather than feel connected to them. Some readers may find this a weakness but I chalked it down to a pertinent feature of Japanese society. The formidable levels of self-restraint so as to let one’s vulnerabilities cause trouble for others. It is not for me to judge whether this tendency is good or bad but it made this book endearing for me as it accurately represented the quirks and idiosyncrasies of a people I have to love so much.

Lastly, this book also made me think about who I would want to meet if I could time travel. And the introspection it sparked within myself is perhaps too personal to share on social media.

Heartily recommend this collection of slice-of-life stories.