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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Besides Japanese culture, which other culture does the narrator say is especially fond of insects?

2. What sport did Gohtaro and Shuichi play together in college?

3. What amuses Kazu and Kyoko about Miki's backpack?

4. What is the first thing that Shuichi wants to know once he understands that Gohtaro has come from the future?

5. What quality is conveyed by the "sepia" lighting in the café?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Gohtaro end up raising Shuichi's daughter?

2. Why is Kyoko not interested in using the café's time-traveling service to go back in time to try to fix the problem with her brother?

3. What are the rules of the time-traveling café?

4. When Gohtaro first sees Shuichi in the past, why does the gesture of putting his hand around his coffee cup cause Gohtaro to suddenly panic about his own ability to communicate?

5. Why is Kazu especially concerned with whether Kyoko's brother understands the rule about not being able to change the present?

6. How does the juxtaposition of the made-up lyrics to Miki's song with Kyoko's emotions after her confession about her brother highlight Kyoko's distress?

7. Why does Haruka's plan to marry mean that she will inevitably discover her true parentage?

8. What reason does the narrator give for Kiyoshi asking his question of the café staff?

9. What has fatherhood been like for Gohtaro?

10. How did Kyoko end up becoming a regular at the café, and why does her son not come with her anymore?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does the text's advice about dealing with regret differ from its advice about dealing with grief? What similarities are there between these two emotions, and what is the key difference between them that leads to the text advocating different ways of dealing with them? Write an essay in which you explore the text's position on the sources and impact of these two emotions as well as its differing advice for dealing with them. Use the examples of the time-travelers in the collection to support your assertions. Be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

The café's major rules for time travel are first explained in "Best Friends." Later in Tales from the Café, though, the reader learns a few more rules--among these, that travelers are able to leave objects behind in the past. Given that this rule is not introduced until later, in "Mother and Son," do you think that it is only introduced because it is necessary to Yukio's story? What does this rule imply about the nature of time? Is this implication consistent with other ideas about time in this story? Write an essay in which you consider whether the rule about the giving and receiving of presents while time traveling is consistent with the rest of the stories in the collection or whether it is just a convenience to explain why Yukio is able to give his mother the passbook. Support your argument with evidence drawn from throughout the text, and be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

Read Fritz Leiber's short story "Try and Change the Past" (available online). Consider the messages it sends about the relationship between past and present. How are these messages similar to and different from those in Tales from the Café? How are the "rules" of time travel constituted in each narrative? What motivates people to travel to the past? How do their travels impact their present reality, if at all? Write an essay comparing and contrasting messages about the relationship of past and present in Leiber's story and Kawaguchi's story collection. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout both texts, and be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

(see the answer keys)

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