In this 5th book in the 'Before The Coffee Gets Cold' series, four
individuals 'time travel' to reduce the burden on their hearts. The book
can be read as a standalone.
On a side street in Tokyo there's a little coffee shop called Funiculi Funicula that has a very unusual feature. 
The
café allows people to travel back, or on rare occasions, forward in
time. There are rigid rules for time travelers, however, as follows:
- Whatever you do, you CANNOT change the present or the future.
- You can only interact with people who have visited Funiculi Funicula.
-
You must sit in one specific chair in the café to time travel, and you
can't leave the chair for any reason. The catch is, a ghost - in the
form of a woman reading a book - occupies the chair and only leaves once
a day to go to the toilet.
- A cup of coffee starts the journey, and you MUST return to the present before the coffee gets cold.
As the book unfolds, four people take advantage of the time travel feature - each one for their own reasons.
Patrons who visit Funiculi Funicula, either for refreshments or for time travel, are likely to meet the following people:
☕︎ Nagare Tokita - the owner of the café; he's over six feet tall and wears a white cook's uniform.
☕︎ Kazu - Nagare's cousin, who works as a waitress in the café; she pours the coffee for the time travelers.
☕︎ Fumiko Kiokawa - a university graduate who knows six languages; she also visits the café every day after work.
*****
In each of the four vignettes in this book, a person has something on their mind, and feels compelled to make amends.
💥
Seven year old Yuki Kiriyama visits Funiculi Funicula, and asks if it's
true he can go back in time. Kazu tells him yes, and Yuki explains he
wants to go back to the previous Christmas. 
On
that day, Yuki's mother and father took him to Disneyworld, then to
Funiculi Funicula for Christmas cake. While there, Yuki's parents told
him they were separating, and Yuki burst into tears.
Yuki now realizes his folks are happier apart, and he wants to go back and NOT cry when he hears the (to him) sad news.
*****
💥Megumi Sakura and her husband Riuji were expecting a baby, and elected to wait until the child was born to name it. 
Shortly
before Megumi's due date, Riuji was killed in an altercation. Soon
afterwards, Megumi had a little girl, and she has one more day to name
the baby. 
Megumi
wants to go back in time WITH the infant, so Riuji can see his child
and give her a name. This is a tricky proposition, though, because as
soon as Riuji sees Megumi with the baby, he'll realize his fate.
*****
💥
Fumio Mochizuki regrets forbidding his daughter Yoko to marry her
boyfriend years ago. Fumio went so far as to say Yoko could never return
home if she wed this man.
💥Yoko, a strong-minded girl, eloped and had a son named Mitsuru. However, Yoko's marriage ended soon afterwards. 
Yoko's life has been difficult since then, and she needs help, but she's too ashamed to approach her father.
This
vignette is a bit complicated, but father and daughter have a
rapprochement when Yoko travels to the past, and Fumio travels to the
future.
*****
Tsumugi Ito and her friend Ayame Matsubara
bonded as young schoolgirls, over their love of history and castles. The
girls even developed the habit of speaking in Samurai dialect, and they
became the best of friends. 
In high school, however, Tsumugi became jealous when a boy she liked expressed interest in Ayame.
Tsumugi
became so resentful, she broke off her friendship with Ayame and
avoided her. It's now years later, and Tsumugi learns things that make
her regret her actions. Time travel and Valentine chocolates help ease
Tsumugi's mind. 
*****
It's
heartening to see the characters redress wrongs and/or ease their
minds. That said, this is my least favorite of the 'Funiculi Funicula'
books because I didn't like some of the protagonists. 
💥
Yuki's parents were divorcing, in part, because they couldn't agree on
their domestic arrangements. I found Yuki's father especially irritating
because he wanted to dictate how things were done at home, but used his
work as an excuse to avoid helping with child-rearing or domestic
chores.
💥I got annoyed with Koko, who eloped, because she had no
common sense about men. Koko did extremely foolish things, not once,
but twice.
💥As for Tsumugi, her behavior was terribly immature.
Tsumugi rejected her BEST friend Ayame because a boy liked Ayame. How
silly is that?
That said, I'd encourage fans of the series to read the novel, but for newbies, I'd say start with book one.
Rating: 3 stars
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