No, these guys aren't standing around playing a tune every day at 5:00, but this is a marginally better picture than showing the loud speaker that the recording is played over.
In many parts of Tokyo, there is a bit of music that plays every day at around 5:00 p.m. My husband and I have dubbed it the "children go home" music. The truth is that I don't know what purpose it serves, but we guess it is to remind kids to head home for dinner as adults wouldn't really need such a tuneful cue. The music is different in different areas, but hearing any version of it always brings back a certain memory from my first visit to Japan. My boyfriend (now husband) was at work and I heard that music around the middle of his day, usually shortly after he returned to work after having come home for late lunch. I knew when I heard it that I was in for a long and lonely evening, but it also reminds me of the best month of my life.
There is a melancholy bittersweet memory associated with this early evening music, and I will miss it.
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