Excerpt from BEFORE YOUR MEMORY FADES, Copyright © 2022 by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. Reprinted by permission of Hanover Square Press.   Summer is fleeting in Hakodate. Not long after the first leaf or two falls, Mt. Hako­date suddenly comes ablaze with the colors of autumn. During this season, a sloping street called Daisan Re­galia Rise attracts tourists in droves for its beautifully cobblestoned paving, straddled by the exotic autumn leaves of the roadside mountain ash trees, all of which creates the mood of a faraway land. Autumn had also arrived in the large window of Café Donna Donna, which overlooked Hakodate Port and vast blue sky. The red-and-gold foliage spreading across the base of that panorama filtered into the café’s atmosphere, making it feel quite romantic. Maybe that was why, seated at the counter, Nanako Matsubara was thinking, I’m seeing so many couples. Today was Sunday. With double the number of customers than usual, the café was extremely lively. However, as most were tourists, it was an open ques­tion as to how many knew this was a café where you could return to the past. Mixed in with all the couples was a gangling man in his late forties, whose features…