Before the Coffee Gets Cold Series by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Publish date: 2015 – 2023
Genre: Magical realism
Trigger warnings: Death, grief, terminal illness, suicide (mentioned or implied, not graphically depicted), miscarriage, pet loss, divorce, unresolved trauma
Short description:
Before the Coffee Gets Cold is a heartwarming and bittersweet Japanese book series by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, centered around a small Tokyo cafe where customers can travel through time. There are strict rules though, including returning before their coffee gets cold. Across five books, different characters revisit moments of love, loss, regret, and reconciliation, not to change the past, but to find closure and understanding. With gentle magical realism and emotional depth, the series explores what it means to say the things we often leave unsaid.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold
A story about time, regret, and closure. The writing is simple yet deeply moving, making each character’s journey feel real and resonant. While the style can feel a bit detached at times, I also feel it’s a little bit repetitive (eventually realizing it’s essential to the book tho), the overall message lingers long after the last page. Glad I took time to reread it.
Tales from the Cafe
I thought the first book shattered my heart enough—turns out, Kawaguchi said, “Hold my coffee.” I held it and had the time of my life crying.
This sequel hits even harder, with stories so tender and bittersweet they should come with a tissue warning. Every story is a gut punch wrapped in warmth, reminded me that love, regret, and second chances are never as simple as we wish. I cried more than before. Tbh, I need someone to also hold my coffee so I can probably cry again. This series owns my soul. Excited for the next.
Before Your Memory Fades
Before Your Memory Fades hit me at exactly the right moment. It blends magical realism with raw emotional truths. I found it incredibly relatable and timely with what I’m currently going through.
I saw parts of myself in so many characters. Their longing to make peace with the past, to say the words they couldn’t say in time, to understand something that still weighs on them. The idea that we can’t change the past, but we can change how we live with it, is something I needed to hear right now.
Before We Say Goodbye
I expected Before We Say Goodbye to hit hard, and it still took the air out of me. What stayed with me most was the story about The Farewell. I didn’t see that coming.
“I fell asleep and he must have felt so lonely, so sad, while breathing his last. I haven’t been saying anything to him but ‘Sorry’. But I’m sure he never wanted to hear that. He wouldn’t have wanted me to cry.”
I have redacted some sentences but that part felt like it was written for me. I never had a pet that close, but losing my partner had me carry the weight of guilt or “what if.” This chapter reminded me that my person didn’t want my apologies or my sorrow. He just wanted me to remember how deeply I am loved. The book’s reflections on regret, forgiveness, and time didn’t just make me think; they made me feel seen.
Before We Forget Kindness
Probably my least favorite in the series – so far, at least if Kawaguchi is writing more. I appreciate a more apparent discussion on cultural and historical themes. But I’ll be honest – I read these books for the emotions. I want that gut punch of longing, those quiet moments that sneak up on you and make you cry in public. And unfortunately, this one’s emotional core didn’t hit me quite as hard as the other books.
If you’ve ever cried over something and said “I’m fine” while clearly not feeling fine, this is the series for you.
It’s a collection of the stories of people visiting a small cafe where you can time travel – but only under very specific rules, like making sure you finish your coffee before it gets cold. You can’t change the past, but you can see someone one last time, say the thing you never said, or find peace from your past chaos.
The series is not for everyone but it reminded be that the impact of each book we read changes depending on where we are in life. I read the first two books early this year. I was sad, I cried, blah blah. But what happened recently irl connected me better with the characters. Some stories hurt more. Some healed something I didn’t know was bleeding. Grief, regret, love – all brewed into one warm, quiet heartbreaking cup.
Each cup takes you back not to change what happened, but to make peace with it. And sometimes, that’s more than enough.
If you could go back in time, whom would you want to meet? That’s the quietly haunting question at the heart of Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold series.
I picked up the first book early this year. Back then, the stories were moving. Thoughtful. Poignant, yes, but distant – like yes the made me cry, but just because I was looking at someone else’s grief through a window.
But everything changed when I lost my partner.
Suddenly, I wasn’t reading these books from the outside anymore. I was reading through them, living in the pages with the characters who wished, as I did, for one more conversation. One more chance to say what mattered. One more moment before the coffee gets cold. Heck, I was wishing this was just a nightmare I would wake up frome one day.
The first book introduces us to cafe Funiculi Funicula, a cozy, slightly magical spot where patrons can travel to the past (or future uhuh), provided they sit in a specific seat and return before their coffee gets cold. It’s a premise that might sound whimsical or fantastical, but Kawaguchi’s focus is deeply emotional.
Each installment in the series follows a similar structure where there are new but familiar characters, familiar staff, and different variations and answers on the same question. While the stories may seem formulaic on the surface, the emotional depth from each experience make them all feel real and very relatable.
The Before the Coffee Gets Cold series is a gentle reminder of the power of empathy, the inevitability of loss, and the enduring importance of human connection. Each cup of coffee offers a fleeting visit to the past – not to rewrite history, but to better understand ourselves and/or the people we love. And sometimes, that’s all we need.
What if I could go back to the last time I saw him? What if I could tell him that love him back so much palagi? What if I could say thank you better, hold his hand longer, or simply sit in silence beside him for one more cup?
I too would visit the past – not to change it, because I know I can’t – but to witness it differently. To soften the edges of regret. To carry pain more gently. That idea, that impossibility made tender by words, became a companion in my grief.
I think people find this series when they need it. Not because it offers solutions, but because it allows room for the ache. It doesn’t rush you out of your feelings. It just sits with you, like a warm cup between your hands, slowly cooling, but never too quickly to matter. I’m grateful I found these books when I did. And even more grateful they found me when I needed them most.
I made a vlog when I was completing the series!
I am using the CAWPILE rating system, though please remember a reader’s taste may change from time to time, so I’m not sure if you can trust me here unless this was a recent read. Leaving my ratings anyways because this was totally how I felt the time I read this book. *winks*
I picked up the first and second books earlier this year. The characters connected with me so much, I needed to get my copies of the rest of the series. I picked up books three to five while grieving the loss of my partner. Every page felt like a quiet conversation with the past. It felt like he was still sitting beside me, listening to my drama as a reader. I devoured the whole series with tears, with love, and with the quiet promise that sa susunod na habang buhay, magkikita tayong muli.
Here are other reads if you liked or interested with Before the Coffee Gets Cold:
Click the book covers to go to Goodreads.
The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Mesina
When Yui loses both her mother and her daughter in the tsunami, she begins to mark the passage of time from that date onward: Everything is relative to March 11, 2011, the day the tsunami tore Japan apart, and when grief took hold of her life. Yui struggles to continue on, alone with her pain.
Then, one day she hears about a man who has an old disused telephone booth in his garden. There, those who have lost loved ones find the strength to speak to them and begin to come to terms with their grief. As news of the phone booth spreads, people travel to it from miles around.
Soon Yui makes her own pilgrimage to the phone booth, too. But once there she cannot bring herself to speak into the receiver. Instead she finds Takeshi, a bereaved husband whose own daughter has stopped talking in the wake of her mother’s death.
Simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming, The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World is the signpost pointing to the healing that can come after.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret.
Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.
When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he’s given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.
But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.
An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.
The last Letter by Rebecca Yarros
Beckett,
If you’re reading this, well, you know the last-letter drill. You made it. I didn’t. Get off the guilt train, because I know if there was any chance you could have saved me, you would have.
I need one thing from you: get out of the army and get to Telluride.
My little sister Ella’s raising the twins alone. She’s too independent and won’t accept help easily, but she has lost our grandmother, our parents, and now me. It’s too much for anyone to endure. It’s not fair.
And here’s the kicker: there’s something else you don’t know that’s tearing her family apart. She’s going to need help.
So if I’m gone, that means I can’t be there for Ella. I can’t help them through this. But you can. So I’m begging you, as my best friend, go take care of my sister, my family.
Please don’t make her go through it alone.
Ryan
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