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Real-life K-ON Musical Instrument Store Relocates in Fukushima

The Akitaya Music Store, which is the inspiration for the music store depicted in the K-ON! television anime series, temporarily closed its doors on March 31 in order to relocate to Satsuki-cho, Fukushima. On Tuesday, the store's site posted an announcement saying that business will resume in May.

The store was formally located in Paseo-Dori, Fukushima. K-ON! pilgrimage goers won't have to worry about radically changing their itineraries, because the new site is only a 10 minute walk away from the old one. In all likelihood, however, the store won't look exactly like how it does in the anime when it reopens. Before the Paseo-Dori store closed, several pilgrimage goers on Twitter rushed to take photos to preserve its likeness for posterity's sake.

Although K-ON!'s Sakuragaoka High School is based on the Toyosato Elementary School in the Shiga Prefecture, many miles away from Fukushima, the anime's setting takes inspiration from various different locations within Japan. K-ON! the movie takes the story to London, which also uses various real-life locations in the city as inspiration.

Source: Akitaya Music Store website