Tales From the Cafe

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

While the novel features an ensemble cast, Kazu undergoes the most significant arc and functions as its protagonist. Funiculi Funicula’s waitress throughout the first two novels in the series, Kazu is responsible for pouring the coffee that enables café patrons to travel through time. She takes her role seriously, pouring the coffee carefully and relaying the rules for time travel calmly and consistently. She is very controlled and tends not to show emotion. Her face is described as a “Noh mask,” suggesting that her calm demeanor is masking her real feelings. She demonstrates kindness and empathy for the café patrons through her actions. She gives Kyoko’s young son an orange juice and insists they don’t pay for it because they didn’t order it. She always puts a heat sensor in the coffee of those who plan to visit people who have died to ensure they have a warning before their coffee gets cold. Kinuyo, her former art teacher, describes Kazu as kind and notes that “she really sees people’s true feelings. She always thinks about the person who sits in that chair” (142).