This is why I say it's his most palatable film. I almost feel like he wrote all the contrivances to get the two main characters together at the end. That's why it is 3 years and not something bigger - it's enough for them to have a misunderstanding, but they can still hook up at the end. Imagine if it was 50 years, and they met but she's like a grandmother or something but they can still share a moment together because of their connection. But then you don't get the dokidokiaisheteru ending. lol
My issue was mainly that I didn't feel the characters really had a genuine emotional connection to each other. I get that teen romance stories often fall back on the concept of fate/true love/whatever, but I find romance stories in which we get to see how the characters grow and change with each other to be more interesting. A big part of the reason I liked Garden of Words so much (relative to expectations) was because so much of the film consisted of the characters actually talking to each other. But this is a more general gripe since Shinkai is obviously far from alone in taking this path (here or in several of his other films).