The Tatami Time Machine Blues

Nomad Edition

In the boiling heat of summer, a broken remote control for an air conditioner threatens life as we know it in this reality-bending, time-slipping sequel to The Tatami Galaxy.

A ruined remote control, a sweltering Kyoto summer, and a time machine hidden in a shabby apartment building set off a hilarious, high-stakes time-travel caper.

It’s August, and our unnamed protagonist and his insufferable best friend Ozu are stuck in a standoff inside their cramped four-and-a-half-tatami-mat room. The problem? Ozu just spilled Coca-Cola on the remote to the apartment’s sole air conditioner, rendering their sweatbox of a building utterly unlivable. As the hero plots his next move alongside his secret crush—the refreshingly blunt Akashi—a bizarre young man named Tamura suddenly materializes from 25 years in the future, time machine in tow.

Naturally, the solution is obvious: travel back just 24 hours to rescue the functional remote before the disaster happens.

But a simple plan quickly devolves into chaos when Ozu and a cast of eccentric neighbors hijack the machine for their own selfish errands. As meddling with yesterday threatens to trigger a time-loop apocalypse—and with Akashi dropping hints about bringing a mystery date to the upcoming summer festival—our desperate hero must race against time, his friends, and impending doom to save the world (and get some air conditioning).

Translated from the Japanese by Emily Balistrieri