Before We Say Goodbye Summary, Characters and Themes
Before We Say Goodbye by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is a novel that continues the deeply emotional time-travel tales introduced in his bestselling Before the Coffee Gets Cold series.
Set once again in the quaint Tokyo café Funiculi Funicula, this installment offers four new stories of people seeking one more moment with someone they’ve lost—be it through death, distance, or emotional silence. The café allows visitors to go back in time, but only under strict rules: nothing they do can change the present, and they must return before their coffee gets cold. This constraint turns each journey into an exploration of closure, healing, and the human need to say what was left unsaid.
Summary
In Before We Say Goodbye, Toshikazu Kawaguchi presents four interwoven stories centered around patrons of a peculiar café in Tokyo, Funiculi Funicula. This café offers the extraordinary opportunity to time travel—but only within its walls, and only back to a moment connected to someone who once visited.
The present cannot be changed, and visitors must return before their coffee cools, or risk becoming a ghost. These limitations don’t deter those burdened with unresolved feelings.
Each chapter in the book unfolds as an intimate portrait of love, regret, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
I. The Husband
Monji Kadokura is a retired archaeologist carrying a weight of unspoken feelings. His wife, Mieko, lies in a vegetative state after an accident six months prior. He visits Funiculi Funicula not in search of a miracle, but of resolution. The café sends him back to a day he had forgotten: their anniversary, when they had visited the café together.
There, he opens up in a way he never could before, expressing his deep gratitude and love for
Mieko, admitting that, despite his flaws and silences, he was truly happy with her. Upon returning to the present, he rushes to her hospital room and holds her hand, finally at peace. Though nothing in the world has changed, everything within him has.
II. The Farewell
Mutsuo Hikita and his wife Sunao are mourning the death of their beloved dog, Apollo—a golden retriever who filled the emotional gap left by their inability to have children.
Sunao’s guilt is particularly heavy: she wasn’t with Apollo during his final moments. Knowing she needs closure, Mutsuo brings her to the café, gently encouraging her to use its time-travel opportunity. She agrees. Back in time, Sunao sees Apollo once more, hugs him, and expresses her love and sorrow.
The experience shifts her grief from overwhelming guilt to warm remembrance. She thanks Mutsuo for understanding what she needed, and the couple begins to heal.
III. The Proposal
Hikari Ishimori is a practical, emotionally guarded woman who once rejected a marriage proposal from her boyfriend, Yoji Sakita. After they broke up, Yoji passed away suddenly, leaving her reeling with regret.
One day, she receives an email from him, scheduled before his death, hinting at the time-travel café. Hikari goes, and is sent back to the moment of the proposal. To her surprise, Yoji seems to know she’s come from the future—he waited for her, hoping she’d seek closure someday.
In that conversation, Hikari realizes how deeply Yoji loved her and how her fear of commitment masked her own feelings. She says “yes” to his proposal in the past, knowing it won’t change reality.
Yet, spiritually, she feels renewed. When she leaves the café, she’s wearing the engagement ring he gave her—a symbol of love accepted, even too late.
IV. The Daughter
Michiko Kijimoto is a university student struggling with the loss of her mother and a strained relationship with her father, Kengo. After her mother’s death, her father became increasingly strict and emotionally distant.
Michiko eventually stopped speaking to him. Now pregnant and scared, she regrets their silence and seeks to make peace.
At the café, she returns to a day when they argued. She opens up about her pregnancy, expecting anger, but instead finds her father warm and supportive. She realizes his coldness was a clumsy form of concern.
Back in the present, though he’s gone, Michiko carries his words with her, finally able to forgive, accept, and move forward.
In each chapter, time travel is not a device to undo the past, but to revisit it with a fuller heart. Through honest conversations, characters free themselves from the weight of “what ifs,” finding peace in the realization that closure doesn’t come from changing the past—it comes from understanding it.
Characters
Monji Kadokura
Monji Kadokura is a retired professor and an archaeologist who carries deep emotional regret from his marriage. His character is shaped by a profound sense of loss and the burden of unsaid words.
Throughout the story, Kadokura reflects on the distance that grew between him and his wife, Mieko, as they aged together. Despite living a long life with her, he never expressed his true feelings—especially the gratitude he had for her companionship and support. His need to travel back in time to confess that he was truly happy with her speaks to his internal struggle with regret. Even though he knows that nothing can change the present, the chance to say what he couldn’t say in the past offers him a sense of emotional closure.
Kadokura’s arc focuses on the power of communication and the emotional release that comes with expressing heartfelt feelings, even when circumstances are beyond one’s control. His time in the café illustrates the idea that while we cannot change the past, we can change how we move forward with the knowledge we gain from our experiences.
Mutsuo Hikita
Mutsuo Hikita is a middle-aged man grieving the death of his golden retriever, Apollo, who had been an emotional anchor in his life. Apollo was more than a pet to Mutsuo and his wife, Sunao; he was like a child they never had. Mutsuo’s arc revolves around his desire to help his wife heal from the guilt she feels for not being present when Apollo passed away.
The couple’s inability to have children turned Apollo into a surrogate for a child, and Sunao’s grief is amplified by the feeling that she failed her beloved dog by not being there during his final moments. Mutsuo brings Sunao to the café in the hopes that a final farewell with Apollo will help her find peace. The emotional depth of Mutsuo’s character lies in his understanding that grief isn’t a linear journey and that some wounds require closure to heal.
Through his experience, the narrative highlights the importance of saying goodbye and finding closure, even in the context of a pet’s death. His love for Sunao and their shared grief creates an emotional journey that leads to healing, both individually and as a couple.
Goro Ishimori
Goro is a man who grapples with guilt and indecision in his relationship with Haruka. His character is defined by his fear of commitment and his tendency to avoid confrontation or difficult conversations.
Goro’s proposal to Haruka, which he eventually abandoned, is the central regret that defines his character arc. He travels back to the past not with the intention to change the course of events, but to understand why he acted as he did.
His journey through time is a process of introspection where he confronts his emotional immaturity and lack of gratitude for Haruka’s sacrifices. The moment Goro learns how much his indecision hurt Haruka reveals the depth of his emotional growth. By the end of his story, Goro learns the value of accountability in love and the importance of being honest about one’s feelings.
His arc demonstrates how unresolved feelings can create rifts in relationships and how personal growth requires owning up to past mistakes.
Yuko Kijimoto
Yuko Kijimoto is a young woman haunted by the guilt of her estranged relationship with her mother, Kumi. Yuko’s character is marked by her deep emotional conflict over the final days of her mother’s life.
She carried unresolved anger and hurt from past misunderstandings, particularly a conflict with her mother that led to their estrangement before Kumi’s death.
Yuko’s decision to visit the café is driven by the hope of finding some kind of closure, a chance to understand her mother’s actions and to make peace with her own. In the past, she is able to communicate openly with Kumi, expressing her regrets and receiving her mother’s forgiveness.
The encounter is cathartic, allowing Yuko to let go of her bitterness and to heal from her emotional wounds. Yuko’s journey is one of reconciliation, not just with her mother, but with herself.
Her story highlights the complexities of family relationships and the power of forgiveness, showing how miscommunications and pride can create lasting pain that can only be healed through honest and vulnerable conversations.
Kazu
Kazu is the enigmatic waitress at the café Funiculi Funicula. While not a central character in the traditional sense, Kazu’s role is crucial to the thematic structure of the novel.
She serves as a guide for the other characters as they navigate their emotional journeys through the café. Kazu’s background is subtly revealed throughout the story, culminating in the revelation that she is the daughter of the ghost who haunts the café. This ghost, who failed to finish her coffee during a trip to the past to see her late husband, serves as a haunting reminder of the consequences of unresolved emotions and failed goodbyes.
Kazu’s understanding of the emotional weight of time travel gives her a unique perspective on the struggles of the other characters. Her personal backstory adds a layer of poignancy to the narrative, as she represents the generational aspect of emotional baggage and the impact of past mistakes on the present.
In a way, Kazu embodies the book’s message that emotional healing is not only a personal journey but can also be influenced by the legacies of previous generations.
Themes
The Power of Regret and the Need for Emotional Closure
One of the central themes in Before We Say Goodbye is the exploration of regret and the deep-seated emotional desire for closure. Throughout the novel, each character struggles with unresolved feelings from their past that linger and shape their present lives.
In the story of Kadokura, the retired archaeologist, the theme of regret is particularly poignant. His journey to speak to his wife, Mieko, before her accident becomes a moment of self-discovery and emotional relief.
He is unable to change the past, but he can express the love and gratitude he failed to communicate before. Similarly, in the chapter The Farewell, Mutsuo Hikita’s journey to help his wife say goodbye to their dog, Apollo, emphasizes the deep bond between humans and pets, highlighting how the unspoken words and unfinished emotional exchanges can haunt individuals. The theme speaks to a universal longing: the need to say things that are left unsaid, to find resolution for things left open.
The café becomes a space where characters confront their emotional baggage, not to alter the past but to process it and reach a peaceful closure.
The Unchanging Nature of Time and the Struggle for Personal Transformation
A recurring element in Before We Say Goodbye is the idea of time travel within a fixed, unalterable framework.
The rules of the café, which prevent characters from changing the present, represent the rigid passage of time—an unyielding force that cannot be manipulated. However, even though time cannot be altered, the characters undergo significant personal transformation.
The journey to the past doesn’t allow them to rewrite history, but it enables them to rewrite their emotional narratives. The past remains as it was, but the characters are changed by their newfound understanding of their past actions and relationships.
In The Proposal, Goro’s trip to confront his past relationship with Haruka doesn’t give him the chance to undo his mistakes, but it provides him the opportunity to apologize and express remorse, which leads to his emotional maturation.
This theme invites reflection on the way time shapes personal growth, as people cannot change the events of their lives, but they can change their perceptions and emotional responses to them.
The Complex Dynamics of Love, Miscommunication, and the Emotional Costs of Unspoken Words
Love, in all its complexities, is a significant theme that weaves through the four chapters of Before We Say Goodbye. However, the book also explores how love is often tangled with miscommunication, emotional distance, and regret. The relationship between Goro and Haruka in The Proposal exemplifies how love can be derailed by miscommunication and emotional neglect.
Goro’s inability to express his feelings or recognize Haruka’s sacrifices leads to their eventual breakup. In the chapter The Husband, Kadokura’s regret for not telling his wife Mieko how truly happy he was with her reveals how love can become muted when words are left unspoken.
The emotional costs of unexpressed love are not only felt by the individual, but they also shape the dynamics of the relationship, often leading to estrangement, unresolved guilt, and the yearning for reconciliation. The novel deftly navigates how love is sometimes lost not due to the absence of affection, but because of the failure to communicate and express it fully, leaving both parties burdened with emotional gaps.
The Healing Potential of Apologies and Forgiveness in Reconciliation
A powerful theme that permeates Before We Say Goodbye is the idea of healing through apology and the transformative power of forgiveness.
The characters are all seeking emotional peace, which they can only attain by confronting their past mistakes and seeking forgiveness. In the chapter The Daughter, Yuko’s journey back to the past allows her to confront her estranged relationship with her late mother, Kumi. By apologizing and hearing her mother’s forgiveness, Yuko releases years of guilt and emotional pain.
This theme emphasizes the importance of not just seeking forgiveness but also extending it, as the act of forgiving can bring emotional release and pave the way for healing.
Similarly, Goro’s apology to Haruka in The Proposal allows him to come to terms with his own guilt, and the act of reconciliation—though it cannot undo the past—frees him from the emotional burden he had been carrying. This theme suggests that the process of healing does not always require changing the past, but confronting it with an open heart and a willingness to make amends.
The Role of Time as a Metaphor for Emotional Growth and Self-Awareness
Time in Before We Say Goodbye serves as both a literal and metaphorical concept, functioning as a key vehicle for emotional exploration. Each character’s journey through time is not just a chance to revisit the past, but a process of self-awareness and emotional growth.
In The Farewell, Sunao’s return to see her dog, Apollo, allows her to let go of the guilt she had been carrying, as she realizes that her inability to be with Apollo during his last moments was not something she could control. Her emotional transformation occurs through this journey in time, as she learns to forgive herself and accept the natural course of life and death.
This theme speaks to the human condition: the relentless passage of time is often the backdrop to our emotional struggles, and yet it also provides us with opportunities to grow, reflect, and ultimately make peace with ourselves.
The café, by offering a chance to relive the past, highlights how our relationship with time shapes our emotional lives, allowing for both growth and closure.
The Quiet Sacrifice and Love that Echoes Through Generations
Another subtle yet powerful theme in Before We Say Goodbye involves the quiet sacrifice and the legacy of love that can echo through generations.
This theme is most poignantly illustrated in the character of Kazu, the waitress at the café. In the final twist of the novel, it is revealed that Kazu’s mother became a ghost in the café after failing to finish her coffee during a visit to the past to see her late husband. This act of neglect led to her becoming trapped in a ghostly state, serving as a quiet symbol of the consequences of unresolved emotional ties.
Kazu’s own life, shaped by the love and loss of her mother, reflects the theme of how emotional sacrifices made by one generation resonate with the next. It also highlights the cyclical nature of love, as Kazu continues to serve the customers of the café, offering them the chance to reconcile with their pasts and make peace.
This theme suggests that love, sacrifice, and emotional healing are not isolated to a single moment or person but can ripple through time, affecting those who come after.