Kazu Tokita
Kazu is a server at the Funiculi Funicula cafe. She is the cousin of Nagare, the cafe's owner. Kazu refers to Kei and Nagare as "sis" and "bro," but neither of them are siblings. While serving customers, Kazu dresses in a white shirt and black bow tie. When people want to travel back in time, Kazu affects a cool, indifferent manner, and prepares the special coffee that they must drink before it gets cold. She warns people against time travel and outlines the strict rules of traveling. In the last part of the book, however, she encourages Kei to travel forward in time to meet her as-yet-unborn daughter. Kazu promises to make sure the daughter will be waiting in the cafe on the day Kei travels to the future. At the end of the novel, Kazu considers how the cafe's time travel is useful for people because it can "change" their hearts, even if they don't materially alter the present.
Kei Tokita
Kei is Nagare's wife and the mother of Miki. Born with a weak heart, Kei spent much of her childhood in and out of the hospital. She met Nagare while he was covered in bandages at the hospital, recovering from a serious accident. When working at the cafe, Kei wears a wine-red apron. In the fourth part of the book, Kei learns that her pregnancy is a serious risk to her own overburdened heart. Rather than abort the child, Kei decides to sacrifice her own life to give birth; however, she worries about not being in her child's life. Before going into the hospital so she can stay alive while pregnant, Kei travels to the future to meet her daughter, Miki. Miki thanks Kei for giving her life, and Kei returns to the present resolved in her decision.
Nagare Tokita
Nagare is the owner of Funiculi Funicula. He is large and usually says little. Nagare takes pride in the food he serves, and becomes despondent and turns to drinking when the markets don't have the products he wants. Nagare met Kei while they were both in the hospital as young people, with Nagare bandaged head-to-toe after having been dragged by a truck. Nagare hopes that Kei will abort their child after learning that childbirth will likely kill her, but he doesn't share his opinion, allowing Kei to decide what she will do. When Kei travels to the future, Nagare is inexplicably in Hokkaido; he says there's no time to explain why he is there.
Yaeko Hirai
Hirai is a regular at the cafe. The owner of a six-seat hostess snackbar next door, Hirai often comes to the cafe to drink coffee before work and to chat with Kazu, Kei, Kohtake, and Nagare. She hasn't spoken to her parents in thirteen years, having left home at eighteen to avoid having to run the family inn. Hirai avoids her sister, Kumi, who often visits to try to convince Hirai to return. When Kumi dies in a road accident on her way home from visiting Hirai, Hirai travels back in time to apologize for abandoning the family. While Hirai had assumed her sister wanted her to return so that she herself could leave, Hirai learns that Kumi doesn't resent her; instead, she wanted Hirai to return so they could run the inn together. Unable to prevent her sister's death, Hirai promises Kumi that she will return to the inn. At the end of the book, Hirai has returned to take over management of the inn and to repair her relationship with her parents.
Kumi Hirai
Kumi is Hirai's younger sister. As a child, Kumi always looked up to her sister, who is six years older. When Kumi was twelve, Hirai left the family home, having fallen out with their parents. This left Kumi to run the family inn in Sendai alone. Kumi routinely travels to Tokyo to try to convince Hirai to return and help her run the inn; however, Hirai usually avoids Kumi, suspecting that Kumi resents her. When Kumi dies in a traffic accident on her way home from a Tokyo visit, Hirai travels back in time to apologize. Kumi is delighted when Hirai promises to come back to Sendai to run the inn alongside her, oblivious to the fact that she will die hours later.
Fusagi
Fusagi is a regular customer at Funiculi Funicula. He is married to Kohtake. In the first part of the book, he sits in the corner making notes in a travel magazine while waiting for the ghost woman to leave her seat and give him the opportunity to travel back in time. In the second part, it is revealed that Fusagi has early-onset Alzheimer's and wishes to go back in time to deliver a letter to Kohtake in which he asks for her to leave him if he can no longer remember her; he doesn't want her to treat him as merely a patient of hers. Later in the book, he continues to visit the cafe, sometimes accepting that Kohtake is his wife, and other times becoming distressed when she introduces herself as such.
Kohtake
Kohtake is another regular customer at Funiculi Funicula. She is Fusagi's wife. Kohtake makes a habit of stopping in at the cafe before or after her shifts as a nurse at a nearby hospital. When Fusagi no longer recognizes her, Kohtake resigns herself to caring for him as a nurse cares for a patient. However, she goes back in time in the second section of the book to speak with him while he still has his memory. Upon learning that he doesn't want her to treat him as a patient, Kohtake returns to the present with a renewed affection for and commitment to her husband, even if he doesn't know who she is.
Fumiko Kiyokawa
Fumiko is a customer at Funiculi Funicula and the main point-of-view character in the novel's opening section. A beautiful, career-driven woman, Fumiko is devastated when her socially awkward boyfriend, Goro, leaves her to pursue his dream job in America. A week later, Fumiko travels back in time to amend the disastrous final conversation they had, even though she knows she cannot influence her present. However, the conversation ends with Goro asking her to wait three years for him to return. Fumiko is pleased to know that while her present is no different, her future may have changed for the better. At the end of the book, Kei travels fifteen years into the future and it is revealed that Fumiko and Goro now run the cafe together.
Miki Tokita
Miki is Kei's and Nagare's daughter. Miki first appears in the story as a schoolgirl who travels back in time to take a photo with Kei, who doesn't know who she is. In the last part of the novel, Kei learns that she will probably die during childbirth. Kei travels fifteen years into the future to meet her unborn child. When they meet, Miki is a shy girl who helps out at the cafe, wearing Kei's wine-red apron. Miki tells Kei that she has taken over Kazu's role as the person who prepares the coffee for time travelers. Miki overcomes her shyness and thanks Kei for giving birth to her.
Goro
Goro is Fumiko's boyfriend. Three years her junior, Goro attracted Fumiko's attention as a talented medical IT programmer who worked tirelessly to locate a bug and save the project they were both working on. After two years of dating, Goro informs Fumiko that he has been offered his dream job at a video game company based in America. Fumiko grows angry with him for blindsiding her with the news, and the two part ways unhappily. When Fumiko travels back in time, the conversation goes slightly differently, with Goro confessing that he has always suspected the large scar on his forehead bothers Fumiko, and that she will inevitably leave him for a better-looking man. The conversation ends with Goro asking her to wait for him to return in three years. Fifteen years later, Goro and Fumiko run Funiculi Funicula together.
