Before Your Memory Fades
Would you travel in time if your actions couldn’t change the present?
There are many points in our life when we wish to go back in time to change something or meet a certain someone or get over a regret of our life. Live life without regrets is just something we say to ourselves but no such thing exists in reality, we often regret our decisions at a point in our life. What if on one such day of regrets you stumble on someone who tells you that there's a chair that exists which has the ability to let you travel back in time? Would you take that chance or leave it behind?
As a kid, I always wished to have a time machine waiting for me in my drawer just like the one in Doraemon. Going back in time to tell myself to be more confident or go for a different choice of course at times. Going back in time to meet someone for one last time before losing it or reliving a memory that has been fading away now. As a kid, I always wished for a time machine waiting in my drawer as they showed in Doraemon. I still do.
At points, I have a hard time remembering my memories. Not just major but some simple ones too. Recently at an event, during the introductory round, we were asked to tell our name, the city where we come from, and one memory (interesting or funny). It was hard for me to remember anything, I had fifteen minutes yet no memory I could think of. It made me realize how hard its for me to remember one single memory regarding anything. It’s as if my memories have started fading away. Well, this actually got me into the habit of writing a diary and this isn’t that bad…
So, the topic of memories and time travel came to my mind while reading the heartwarming book “Before Your Memory Fades” by Toshikazu Kawaguchi from his ‘Coffee Gets Cold’ series. This is the 3rd part of the series with stories from Cafe Dona Dona on the hillside of Mount Hakodate, Hokkaido which offers a service to let you travel through time. Of course, under certain rules and regulations: You can only meet people who have visited the cafe, you must stay seated in your chair, and most importantly, you must return back to the present before the coffee gets cold.
You must be wondering why one would even go visit the cafe. Well, you are not the only one, many in the book, the residents of Hokkaido, Tokyo, and around the world who got to know about the cafe via articles and news. While reading the rules I also wondered why would one travel in time if one can’t change the present, what's the sense of traveling at all then? But after reading the stories from books one to three, I guess I now understand. If I were to find a chair like that maybe I’d like to travel too. It’s not like the present can change but it will help get rid of what we call those as ‘regrets’.
Part three was also a group of stories of travelers who had regrets. Regret & rage of living without their parents; regret of not being able to achieve a dream with their loved one; regret of losing their sister, their only family suddenly; and regret of realizing their love for their childhood friend only after being on the verge of losing her.
While reading the series we know that there are two such cafes in Japan. One in Tokyo by the name Funiculi Funicula and the other in Hokkaido by the name Donna Donna. The first two books are about the ‘time travelers’ of Cafe Funiculi Funicula. One thing that connects the two apart from it being a time-traveling cafe is Nagare Tokita & Kazu Tokita, the siblings running the cafe in Tokyo together for years. But recently, Yukari Tokita, Nagare’s mother, and Kazu’s aunt left for America to find the father of a boy who traveled to Japan in the hope to meet him via the cafe chair but according to the rules, it was impossible. Being the soft-hearted Yukari is, she left on the journey to find the boy’s father.
So, on behalf of Yukari’s absence Nagare and Kazu along with Kazu’s seven-year-old daughter, Sachi moved to Hokkaido to look after the cafe leaving Funiculi Funicula under Miki’s (Nagare’s daughter) care. Since the coffee that helps you travel in time can only be poured by the females of the Tokita family (and if one gives birth to a daughter, the power passes down to her and can only work after the age of seven) Kazu insisted on traveling to Donna Donna with Sachi without worrying about Miki who is a high school student now.
The book overwhelmed me with emotions. Actually, the entire series did. If I have to choose a series I cherish the most and re-read from time to time after Harry Potter & Agatha Christie’s Poirot, then it will be the Coffee Gets Cold series. The simple storytelling, emotions, the past of the travelers, the cuteness of 7-year-old Miki and Sachi, the ghosts of the two cafes, and the owners of the cafe make it a sweet ride through the time. At points, I would wonder about the time I’d like to travel to if I had the option to do so. Or would I even travel?
