五時になりました。
So cold. Of everything that I remember about my first day in Japan, I remember being cold the most. I do remember almost losing my passport in the airport and the extremely long wait on the train platform. Moving into my apartment and going to the supermarket and seeing 50 different kinds of tofu were quite memorable too, but mostly, I remember being very tired, cold and ready to go back to steamy Bangkok that night. But as I lay on my futon, covered with every blanket my school provided me, I also clearly remember hearing these chimes and the following announcement.
Of course, I had no idea what it was all about. Earthquake warning? Tsunami? Active volcano? Godzilla? Eh, sleepy, I’ll worry about when I hear some screaming. After a few minutes of silence, I decided that I just needed more sleep and whatever that was could be ignored. But it kept happening. Every day. At the same time. After a few days, my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to ask one of the lifers at my school what it was all about. God, I hate being a newbie.
So yeah, it is a message for all of the kids to go back home. But there is more to it than just that. The actual reason for the song is to test the speakers and ensure that the emergency warning system is working. That’s right, almost every city in Japan is hooked up with an emergency broadcast system similar to the one in my city. It shouldn’t be that surprising considering the number of earthquakes that hit Japan every year. And Godzilla, of course.
During typhoon season it is particularly busy. In the hours before the big one hit Chiba Prefecture in October, we were getting almost hourly updates on emergency shelters and tips to keep ourselves from being killed in the storm. I have also heard announcements about train delays and other news that may be of interest to people in the city.
As for the kids get home, it is 5:00, it really does that too. One summer evening I was walking home and just happened to be walking through one of the parks in my city when the first few notes of Yuyake Koyake began to play. Half a dozen elementary school-aged soccer-playing kids let out a simultaneous shriek and busted ass for home. I’m pretty sure that most American kids would just ignore the guidance of the disembodied voice and continue playing until threats from mom began echoing through the neighborhood.
Now that it is past the autumn equinox, a different song is played at 4:00 and the children are told to return home. It does begin to get dark around then and even though I live in a smaller commuter city, people drive like maniacs through the narrow residential streets. I am not sure why people have to tear through the streets like it is the final lap at Monaco, but that is just the way it is. At 5:00, the Yuyake Koyage song is played again, minus the announcement. Come spring equinox in March, everything will return back to its normal 5:00 routine.
The chimes have become just part of daily life, but I still enjoy hearing them and it is just one more layer that makes Japan such an interesting place to live.
Special thanks to 石井さん for the translation help. There were a few words I just could not make out.
Rolling Tsuchinoko 