Tales From the Cafe

Content Warning: This section of the guide refers to suicide and pregnancy loss.

Gohtaro Chiba goes to Funiculi Funicula, the Tokyo café from which it’s possible to time travel. He plans to go back 22 years to meet a friend and former rugby teammate, Shuichi Kamiya. Gohtaro has heard rumors about the café and knows its rules: One cannot change anything about the present by returning to the past; one can only meet people who have visited the café; one can only time travel from one chair, which is almost always occupied by a spectral woman in a white dress reading a novel; and one must return to the present before their coffee gets cold.

Gohtaro remembers his original meeting with Shuichi at the café. He had been penniless, and Shuichi gave him a job in his restaurant. When Shuichi and his wife died in a car accident a year later, Gohtaro took responsibility for raising their one-year-old daughter, Haruka.

Gohtaro reminisces about his time playing rugby with Shuichi, meeting his friend’s wife and daughter, and the moment he decided to raise Haruka after her parents were killed. He tells the café’s waitress, Kazu, that Haruka is getting married, and he wants to tell her about her real father by recording a video message from Shuichi.