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Kohtake
Fusagi is Kohtake’s husband, a grumpy, reticent regular customer at Funiculi Funicula. He has Alzheimer’s disease, a disorder that causes his memory to deteriorate rapidly. Fusagi and Kohtake often visited Funiculi Funicula before his Alzheimer’s diagnosis, and as it progresses, Fusagi is consistently drawn back to the café. He sits in one spot and reads travel magazines, waiting for the ghost’s seat to open up so that he can travel back in time and hand Kohtake a letter. However, by the beginning of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Fusagi is already having trouble remembering who his wife is. Soon, Fusagi forgets Kohtake entirely. Kohtake decides to go back in time herself to receive the letter from a less forgetful Fusagi. Doing this helps Kohtake better understand Fusagi. Fusagi doesn’t show his love in traditional ways, and he’s easily embarrassed by his own feelings. Underneath his prickly exterior, though, Fusagi adores Kohtake. Kohtake never learned to read or write beyond a beginner level, but for Kohtake, he painstakingly writes out a long letter expressing his feelings and encouraging her to remain his wife, not just his nurse.
Fusagi Quotes in Before the Coffee Gets Cold
The Before the Coffee Gets Cold quotes below are all either spoken by Fusagi or refer to Fusagi. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 2 Quotes
It wasn’t until later that [Kohtake] learned that [Fusagi] could barely read or write. When she found out, she asked him how he managed to read all the long letters she wrote to him. Apparently, he just allowed his eyes to wander over them. Then he just wrote in his reply the vague impression he got from this gazing. But with the last letter, after casting his eyes over it, he was overcome with a feeling that he had missed something important. He read it word for word while asking different people to tell him what the words meant—hence the long time it took to reply.
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“So I ask you never to forget one thing. You are my wife, and if life becomes too hard for you as my wife, I want you to leave me.
“You don’t have to stay by me as a nurse. If I am no good as a husband, then I want you to leave me. All I ask is that you can do what you can as my wife. We are husband and wife after all. Even if I lose my memory, I want to be together as husband and wife. I cannot stand the idea of us staying together only out of sympathy.
“This is something I cannot say to your face, so I wrote it in a letter.”
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Amid the anxiety and fear of losing his memory, he was hoping that she would continue to be his wife. She was always in his heart.
There was more proof of this to be found. Even after losing his memory, he could content himself by looking at travel magazines, opening his notebook, and jotting something down. She had once looked at what he wrote. He had been listing the destinations that he had traveled to in order to visit gardens. She had simply assumed his actions were a hangover from his love of his work as a landscape gardener. But she was wrong. The destinations he made a note of were all the places that he had visited with her. She didn’t notice at the time. She couldn’t see. These notes were the last handhold for Fusagi, who was gradually forgetting who she was.
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Chapter 3 Quotes
[Hirai’s] walk was the same as normal, but she was dressed rather differently. Rather than wearing her usual loud clothes in red and pink, she was in mourning dress. Rather than a head full of curlers, her hair was done up in a tight bun. Anyone would agree that she looked like a different person.
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The crease deepened on Kohtake’s brow as she leaned forward.
“Was it today?”
“What today?”
“The funeral, of course,” Kohtake replied, betraying her uneasiness with Hirai’s attitude.
“Yeah. Look,” Hirai said as she stood up and spun round to show her funeral attire. “It kind of suits me, don’t you think? Do you think it makes me look a bit subdued?” Hirai made some model-like poses, adopting a proud face.
Her sister was dead. Unless the people in the café were mistaken about that, her irreverence seemed over the top.
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Fusagi Character Timeline in Before the Coffee Gets Cold
The timeline below shows where the character Fusagi appears in Before the Coffee Gets Cold. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...been sitting at a table and reading a magazine throughout the entire scene. The man, Fusagi, seems not to recognize Nagare when he speaks to him. Nagare leaves the table and...
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...be on her way shortly. Nagare nods and goes into the back, and Kazu refills Fusagi’s coffee.
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As Kazu pours Fusagi’s coffee, Fumiko catches her eye. Fumiko resolves herself to the café’s rules of time travel,...
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...Wearing a nurse’s uniform and appearing winded, she thanks Kazu for calling her and approaches Fusagi. Kohtake greets him softly, as if speaking to a child. Fusagi recognizes her and calls...
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Fumiko overhears Kohtake and Fusagi’s conversation and cries out in despair when she learns that Fusagi is competing with her...
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With Fusagi gone, Fumiko relaxes and eventually dozes off at the counter. As she sleeps, she remembers...
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Chapter 2
...sits in the café and writes a letter. Kei watches curiously from the counter, and Fusagi reads a travel magazine and makes notes as usual. Kumi finishes her letter and hands...
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...takes over for Kei’s shift. As she emerges from the back with her uniform on, Fusagi flags her down and asks for a coffee refill. Fusagi stares at Kazu while she...
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...comes out of the back room looking upset, and Kohtake enters the café. She greets Fusagi by name and asks how he’s feeling, but Fusagi doesn’t seem to recognize her at...
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Filling the silence after Fusagi’s departure, Kohtake tells Kei and Kazu not to worry about her. She has been expecting...
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Fifteen years ago, Kohtake and Fusagi were walking through the city during a heat wave. They looked around for an air-conditioned...
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In the present, Kohtake, Kei, and Kazu drink and reminisce. Kohtake tells them that Fusagi has been calling her by her maiden name for six months. She insists that she...
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Kohtake and Fusagi dated long-distance while Kohtake was in college and Fusagi was working as a landscape gardener....
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Two months went by with no response, and then Kohtake finally received a letter from Fusagi that said only: “Let’s get married.” She wrote back: “Yes, let’s.” Later, Fusagi admitted that...
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Back in the present, Kohtake tells Kei and Kazu that she’s skeptical of Fusagi having written her a letter, although Kei immediately latches on to the idea that it’s...
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Kohtake recalls watching Fusagi change as he slowly lost his memories. The first sign appeared two years ago, when...
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...starts to think that the time travel didn’t work, the bell rings and a younger Fusagi enters the café. Fusagi stares at her with an odd expression on his face, and...
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Kohtake asks Fusagi if he has anything he wants to give her, signaling that she knows about the...
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In answer to Fusagi’s question, Kohtake nods. Fusagi looks miserable, and Kohtake feels guilty for causing him distress. He...
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...When she finishes reading, she hands it to Kazu to read aloud. In the letter, Fusagi asks Kohtake to leave him if life is too hard for her once he inevitably...
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Chapter 4
...eagerness to see Goro in the future, much to her embarrassment. The bell rings and Fusagi enters the café. Kohtake approaches him and greets him as “darling,” introducing herself to him...
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