L'Arc~Compendium

– Do you watch a lot of movies?
[I do. Basically, whenever work finishes early or I have a I day off, I’ll watch a movie at home. I don’t do rentals. Because it’s a pain to go out and return them. I don’t even have any rental memberships. I’m the DVD buying type.]

– Then, you own a fair number of DVDs, don’t you?
[Yeah, I do~. I’ve never counted, but I have quite a few. I even have a bunch that I’ve never watched. I bought the [Dirty Harry] box (1) about two or three years ago and still haven’t watched it (laughs).]

– What type of movies do you like?
[Something moving, or suspense, and sci-fi. Oh, and I like mafia movies too.]

– tetsu-san, you want to join the mafia, right? (laughs)
[Yeah, I do. Cause I love [The Godfather](2). One time, I had it playing at home like a background video. When the first box came out. I think that was three years ago? I’ve always liked it, so I bought it, but at the time it was my top favourite movie. For over a year, the ‘love theme’ from [The Godfather] was my ring tone (laughs). I loved Andy Garcia (3). I thought he was me.]

– Did you watch movies when you were little?
[I did, on TV. In my last years of elementary school, I liked war movies. Like [1941] or [Jigoku no Mokushiroku].(4)]

– Such a severe elementary schooler~. Did you voluntarily go see movies at the cinema?
[That would have been around middle school. I think I went there on dates.]

– Ah, the royal road. What did you go see?
[I don’t remember what I watched on my first date. You know, I like anime quite a bit, but I don’t like [Hokuto no Ken](5) at all. It’s no good right from the artwork. The lines are fat. I prefer artwork that looks pretty, more like shoujo manga. I had no interest in the content, either, but a girl asked me to go see [Hokuto no Ken] with her…… and I went (laughs).]

– Ahaha! tetsu-san, what kind of movie did you like at that time?
[Let’s see…… [Outsider] or [Rumble Fish]. Matt Dillon was so cool~(6). When I was in high school, I worked in a record store. It was combined with a video rental store, so after work I’d always borrow a movie. But at that time I was only into horror.]

– Could you list some movies you like at present?
[Yeah~, I like all kinds of movies, but I can’t really think of one to name that I especially like. I get bored fast, so it’s always changing. One I’ve always liked would probably be “The Godfather”. Now, it’s not just pure entertainment, I also watch from a work-like perspective.]

– It’s not a fun release, like it used to be?
[That’s right. Well, I can understand background situations better now, you know? Watching a movie, when a non-cute heroins appears, it’s fun to wonder “Ah, where does she work? Ah, what kind of political forces are at work?” (laughs)]

– What’s a recent hit with you?
[It’s not a movie, it’s a TV series, but [24-TWENTY FOUR](7) was interesting.]

– Ah~, that show makes my palms sweat. Did you watch it all at once?
[No, I didn’t see it as a collection. It was a major topic in info magazines, so when I read about it, I went ahead to a video store to rent it. But, I didn’t want to get a membership just for that, so instead I picked up volume one in an auction and waited for the next one to come out. After that, I went out to buy them on the release dates.]

– Then, the first volume managed to draw you in.
[Yep. It was as interesting as they said. I was in the middle of recordings, so I had a hard time. Watching it. I get home at 3 or 4 AM right? I’d watch it after that, until 7 or 8 in the morning. Ah, I gotta sleep, I have work tomorrow. Even so, I thought it was interesting enough to watch. They end it at a really good part every time, right? That’s dirty, stopping here! It always made me want to watch the next one. It’s thrilling, it develops fast, and it has a lot of major twists. There’s no way all this stuff can happen in 24 hours! Kim shows her boobs too much! Going around like that is why you got abducted! I end up throwing out comments like that sometimes (laughs). But watching that show, no one would actually believe it. I’m wary by nature, but with this especially, its not good to be too uptight. I’m looking forward to the second season. I’ll buy it quick.]

– Interviewer : Harada Sachi
Translated by Natalie Arnold

1. A classic American cop movie starring Clint Eastwood, made in 1971. Go back.

2. A trilogy of Mafia movies that was released in 1992.Go back.

3. An actor who appeared in the Godfather trilogy.Go back.

4. ‘1941’ is an American war comedy about preparing for a Japanese invasion. Jigoku no Mokushiroku’ translates to ‘Hell’s Revolution’ and is the Japanese title of the American movie ‘Apocalypse Now’.Go back.

5. In English, ‘Fist of the North Star’.Go back.

6. Both movies are directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who also made The Godfather. Matt Dillon stars in both.Go back.

7. Known simply as ’24’ in the original English.Go back.

– Are you pleased with the place you currently live in?
[It isn’t perfect, but I like it. The view from the living room is incredibly good. It’s good 24 hours a day. The windows are big, so I can see the Rainbow bridge(1). From the bedroom, I see the skyscrapers of Shinjuku.]

– How nice~.
[It’s just a normal, simple place. All in white. The bath is all white too, with a glass door connected to the washroom(2).]

– Where do you spend the most time?
[That would be the living room, wouldn’t it? I have a white leather-covered sofa, and in the corner there’s a desk where my computer is set up, so between the Aeron chair(3) I have there and the sofa, I think I spend a lot of time sitting in that room.]

– How refined~. But, is everything really all white?
[Yes it is. I don’t really like black, so there isn’t a single piece of black furniture in my home. It’s basically white. I also like wood, glass, and aluminium. My whole place has that sort of feeling. But you know, there are things in the world that only come in black. Like the Aeron chair I mentioned earlier, it’s mostly black, but the netting on the back part is red. Generally they’re all black, although they do normally sell the ones with red netting now, but when I bought mine it was the first custom order in Japan. That was seven or eight years ago though.]

– That’s amazing~. So you live surrounded only by things you like?
[I just don’t want to make room for things I hate. I don’t want to have things I don’t like within my sight.]

– Have you liked interiors since you were a child?
[Yeah, I did. I think I had an interest in architecture itself. When I was a kid, I’d look at cool buildings and my heart would beat faster. I liked model rooms too. In third or fourth year of elementary school, I reformed my parent’s house. That is, I got to make my own room be how I wanted. I was picky back then, too. I talked with an old merchant. The wallpaper, the blinds, the door; I picked them all myself.]

– Very mature. What was the feel of that room you got to remake?
[Loghouse-ish (laughs). It was all wood patterned, totally different from the wood I like now. But for an elementary school kid, I think I was pretty blessed, being able to designed a satisfactory room.]

– How long did you live in that room?
[Uhmmm, until I was about 18. After high school graduation, I thought I should be independent, so I started living on my own.]

– You must have been picky then, too.
[Actually, that was amazing. The guy who played guitar in the band I was in back then decided on his own. He said “I’ll go see a real estate agent,” and then casually asked “Come check out my place too.” Then he said “I picked one!” It was a different room in the same building as him. “I even put down the deposit for you~” he said. I just said Whaaat?! (laughs).]

– Ahaha! Was it actually a place you liked?
[Totally! (laughs) But the way I was back then, I had no money, and they don’t give back deposits, you know. It would have been wasted. Well, whatever~]

– What kind of room was it?
[Tiny, profitable (laughs). Four and a half mats, no bath, shared toilet, public bath using. (4)]

– That’s not quite what I’d pictured as a place where you’d live, tetsu-san.
[Me neither (laughs). I didn’t care for it at all but lots of my musician buddies were invited there. By me. It had the spirit of that manga house, “Tokiwaso”(5). There was room for about twenty households in all, and by the end I had friends living in about half of them.]

– How long did you live there?
[Less than two years?]

– tetsu-san, that’s a long time for you, isn’t it?
[That’s right, a lot of the time I don’t even stay in the same place for a whole year. Well, I thought I’d move away as soon as I could, but my friends were right there, so it would be inconvenient to move away. In the end, within two years I moved into a normal one room mansion(6). I moved so many times after that, didn’t I? I’ve never renewed a lease.]

– Of all the places you’ve lived in, is the one you have now the one you like most?
[Yeah, it is. But I still made some compromises.]

– But, compared to your memories of that four and a half mat place, it’s superior, isn’t it?
[Well, they’re good memories…… they really are. But I wouldn’t want to live in a place like that again (laughs).]

– Interviewer : Harada Sachi
Translated by Natalie Arnold

1. The Rainbow Bridge is a long suspended bridge that crosses Tokyo Harbour. It has two levels, one used as an expressway for cars and the other being an ordinary road with sidewalks.Go back.

2. In Japanese homes, the bath is usually in a room apart from what Westerners would consider bathroom fixtures, like a sink and toilet.Go back.

3. The Aeron chair is a designer office chair that is made to be comfortable for long periods of time in various positions.Go back.

4. Japanese rooms are often measured in tatami mats size. One mat is six feet by three feet. Four and a half mats is quite small indeed. Public baths are very common in Japan, dating back to when most houses didn’t have baths of their own.Go back.

5. Tokiwaso, or Tokiwa apartments, was a cheap building of tiny apartments where many famous manga artists all lived back in the 1950s.Go back.

6. In Japanese, the English word mansion has come to mean a condominium rather than a large house.Go back.

[You know, I like architectural structures. Like, when I go to a friend’s house, I like to look at the rooms, too. You know how after some years, there’s a reform or a boom? I like observing the products of those reforms, too. Oh, and I like comparing the interiors of, say, a clothing store and a grocery store, too.]

– Do you think you’d like to try producing these things yourself?
[I’d like to give it a try. But I’m sure no one would let me. Getting a store of my own would be tough, but if it means the interior would be entirely up to me, I definitely want to try.]

– But, regarding architecture, I often hear it said that Tokyo’s buildings aren’t so great.
[Ah. Buildings are what makes a city, though. And of course the roads, streets. Aren’t the streets so tiny? Tokyo’s streets, well, Japan’s streets are narrow. Originally, it seemed like Japan was going to cast off all the old stuff and put in new stuff in a hurry, and it looked like that would be cheaper. When they had to repair things because of earthquakes or air raids, they could’ve gone on to make the streets wider. But since they didn’t go about it systematically in the past, now we’re stuck going around in circles.]

– These days, they reopen all sorts of places, renaming Roppongi or Shiodome (1) for instance, but do you get the impression that they’ve only glossed them over?
[No, I think those are good developments, myself. However, it’s not the nation that directed their construction, though. It was all done by private companies. It makes me wonder if the country couldn’t do a little more. In places like California, there’s a law saying houses have to be properly maintained, isn’t there? If you don’t maintain your garden and weeds get out of control, there are penalties. And then, in European countries, for instance, you can’t build your house any way you want, it seems they’ve decided you can only build houses that are in harmony with the ones around it, but in Japan the atmosphere is more like if it’s your land, you can build anything you want on it. I think the residents should make an effort to get them to pass a law or by-law that would prevent the scenery from getting ruined.]

– The scenery of the city as a whole should be a concern, then.
[Yeah. In London, too, there’s a limit placed on billboards and neons in certain parts, right? Like around London’s Piccadilly Circus. And in the neighbourhood right around Times Square in New York. There aren’t many others, though. But in Tokyo, they’re everywhere. Furthermore, some of these things make me doubt their senses. In terms of design. Still, there certainly are quite a few buildings designed by Japanese architects that are designed well. But, I can tell that any building other than those is just built at random. Looking around the world, I think there are some incredibly well-designed buildings, so I think it’s a shame.]

– Can you think of an example of a building that struck you as cool, lately? One with architecture that you think should be the new standard for Japan.
[Out of the buildings in Japan? Roppongi Hills, maybe (2). That took quite a bit of money to build, didn’t it? It was done by a French designer, but it’s still cool. And then, even though it’s old, I get a good feeling from the Shinjuku Shintoshin (3). Aren’t the buildings in Shiodome kinda cheap-looking? I’ve never been there though. I only drove around it, but the surroundings had a cheap sort of feeling. It sorta feels fake. But, the most fake looking one of all is Yoyogi’s NTT Docomo building (4). When I looked at that thing, I kinda flipped (laughs). At first, I was looking forward to it, wondering if they’d be able to mix the Empire State building and the Chrysler building, wondering when they’d finish, but then “Eh? It’s finished?” “It’s only temporary right?!” (laughs) It’s kind of embarrassing.]

– What else do you think makes a cool metropolitan area, and do you have an opinion on the streets themselves?
[I like pretty streets lined with trees. Like Omotesandou or Purachina Dori(5). Cities with green spaces are nice. Compared to any other major world metropolis, Tokyo has extremely few of them. So, they should open up the Imperial Palace (6) (laughs), and have it be like New York’s Central Park. If we did that, we’d be up to world standards. Oh, and these days, you hear a lot about rooftop gardens, but wouldn’t it be nice if they stepped it up a little?]

– So then, tetsu-san, if you had the chance to fix up the design of Tokyo, what would you do?
[Remake it from scratch? If I was starting from scratch, I’d make it look like a Go board (7). Like New York’s Manhattan. It would be a Go board with wide streets. And then the building coverage, the floor area ratio would be lower. Build things upwards, higher. Cause, I like tall buildings (laughs).]

– Which is your favourite tall building in the world?
[That would be New York’s Chrysler building.]

– What is it about tall buildings that you find so captivating?
[What do I like about them? It’s kind of a mentality predictor, since tall buildings are a status symbol, so there’s something admirable about them. Also, I like chairs, too, and I’ve been told it’s the same principle. It’s a trend present in my mentality.]

– An admiration of status, an admiration of power.
[Don’t I sound horrible, just from hearing that? But that’s definitely all at a subconscious level (laughs).]

– Interviewer : Kikuchi Keisuke
Translated by Natalie Arnold

1. Modern Tokyo boasts certain “cities within the city” that are newly redeveloped districts. Roppongi and Shidome are two well known examples of this development.Go back.

2. Roppongi Hills is one of those “cities within the city” mentioned earlier. It is a complex of buildings all united as one structure.Go back.

3. More properly “City Tower Shinjuku Shintoshin”, it is a 37-story skyscraper in the heart of Shinjuku, a ward of Tokyo.Go back.

4. NTT Docomo is a cellular company. Their Yoyogi building is a skyscraper made to look like a merging of New York’s Chrysler building and Empire State building. There is also a clock at the peak of the building.Go back.

5. Omotesandou is a long street in Harajuku mostly lined with cafes and upscale fashion boutiques. Purachina Dori, meaning Platinum Road, is located in Tokyo’s Minato ward and is home to the same type of shops as the Omotesandou.Go back.

6. The Imperial Palace in Tokyo is the home of the Emperor and his family, but it and it’s gardens are not accessible to the public except on two days of the year, namely New Year’s Day and the Emperor’s birthday.Go back.

7. Go is originally a Chinese board game that is now popular throughout Asia and increasingly elsewhere. The board is flat with lines painted on to form rows and columns of squares.Go back.

– Do you like Japan?
[It’s difficult to say if I like it or hate it, but I think it’s an unusual country. For example, kanji and hiragana and katakana (1). We have three kinds of characters. Even for simple magazines. We can start either from the left or from the right, and in newspapers we even have it top-down. I think we should standardize it, already. I want to make things simple. Simplify, simplify. Besides, in the West it’s always from the left, and anything in Arabic characters reads from the right. But in Japanese, you can write things top-down and still start from the left (2). I wouldn’t get it, if I was a foreigner. I want to make it simpler, much simpler. Both the characters and the sentences.]

– But, with hiragana and katakana and kanji, many subtle nuances can be brought out, don’t you agree?
[Nah, I don’t go for that sort of thing. I’d like a simple global standard. For magazines, too, I think the western style, opening on the right, is based on human engineering. There are more right-handed people, so they’d open things on the right and flip through them that way. Reading words horizontally is less tiring, too; I think it’s the proper path for the eye. Originally, Japanese went top-down but these days, it’d be good to standardize the horizontal system, wouldn’t it? And open on the right. And then, our cars drive on the left. Here too, if you apply human engineering, there are overwhelmingly more right-handers, so it should be better to do the gear changing with the right hand. It doesn’t matter so much with automatics, but in a manual one, it’s better to use your dominant hand. This is how I think : Make everything simpler. Global standards and universal designs. Standardize the world standards. I mean, standardize to either centimetres or inches. Inch sizes and centimetre sizes might seem like a subtle distinction, but it really is a different size. I think there should be a world standard for voltage, too.]

– Doing so would certainly be logical, and probably much more convenient.
[So anyway, I think Japan’s a terribly unique country. Even on a worldwide scale. Like how we’ve got all these foreign military bases here, but everyone thinks that’s normal. However you look at it, the Self-Defence Force(3) is an army, but it isn’t recognized as an army. I think it would be okay to call it an army, since it is one. Oh, and we don’t have many patriotic people, do we?]

– tetsu-san, are you patriotic yourself?
[Me? I’m not (laughs). I don’t think of it as a problem. To put it bluntly, I don’t think anyone does. Not loving your own country. Even during the soccer world cup, there were incredibly many cheers for Korea. I don’t think Japan should go that far. I think that’s the reason Japan’s representatives couldn’t win against Korea.]

– It could perhaps be that we have a gentle national character. We have a deep rooted reverence for modesty. Something like gracefully accepting poverty.
[Hmm. Are those ideas the natural state of the Japanese? Is that Bushidou(4)? Is it really? I think that all that modesty was planted later into education about the Second World War. And so the nature of the Japanese probably isn’t much to scream about. The people who are getting old now, they grew up in an era where they had nothing, they learned to treasure what they had by enduring that era, but are we mistaking that way of thinking for a Japanese tradition, I wonder? Am I wrong?]

– Then, you don’t identify with a mentality like the one I mentioned?
[I just saw “The Last Samurai” and I couldn’t identify with it at all. I thought that my way of thinking was nothing like the typical Japanese. From the beginning, when I saw the TV advertisements that said something like “He was touched by Bushidou, he wept,” it occurred to me that we can only know as much about the ancient samurai as we were taught. Besides, during that era, most of the Japanese were peasants.]

– So, can you describe a time when you felt glad to be Japanese?
[Whenever I eat Japanese food. After all, food from other countries has such strong flavour, doesn’t it? And in America, they overcook their meat, too. The Japanese have a delicate palate, they say, and so I think that means we have a highly developed sense of taste. And so, we get to eat all kinds of delicious food. You know, since I do this kind of work, I get to travel to all sorts of areas and sample the local delicacies, but in the end I think Tokyo’s food is the tastiest. Of course, in rural areas, the ingredients might be fresher, but I think that when it comes to the skill of the cook, the more skillful people are found in Tokyo. The rural people take it easy. Just cause they’ve got the freshest materials, right? It’s the same sort of thing, say, with Thai cuisine made in Japan. When you go to Thailand, Thai food doesn’t taste as good (laughs). The Thai food you can get in Tokyo is the best. It’s made to suit Japanese tastes, too.]

– That’s certainly true. You could argue that it isn’t really Thai food anymore.
[Right. It’s like how curry originally comes from India, but Japanese-style curry tastes better because it’s been adapted for Japanese taste. Since I’m Japanese, I prefer ours.]

– Listening to you speak so far, I thought you needed to take a little bit more pride in being Japanese, since you pointed out how much you’re apart from your countrymen, but you mentioned universal designs and global standards, which brings to mind an image of a borderless nation. This might be something you’re opposed to discussing, but tetsu-san, do you keep yourself highly aware of how this nation is going?
[Eh, opposed? Well, in the end, I want this to become a country I can love. How can I come to love it? That’s hard to answer. A presidential system would be better, wouldn’t it? Where the people decide in a presidential election. So, we’d have many more chances to pass judgement on how the president is doing, and that would be good, wouldn’t it?(5)]

– Interviewer : Kikuchi Keisuke
Translated by Natalie Arnold

1. These are the three different kinds of characters used in written Japanese. You have to know all three to be fluent. There are 48 base hiragana and 48 base katakana, which are phonetic symbols, and several thousand kanji, which are ideograms adapted from written Chinese. Go back.

2. Traditionally, Japanese was written top-down with the first column on the right side of the page, and reading would progress toward the left. Also, I think it is worth mentioning that this entire book is printed western style, with text written horizontally and reading from left to right. It is, of course, still written in Japanese.Go back.

3. After the end of World War II, one of the sanctions on Japan was that it may not maintain a military force. However, the Self-Defence Force was established as a basic defence unit, strictly to preserve the country’s independence and safety. It is truly minuscule compared to the military found in other countries.Go back.

4. Bushidou, usually translated as the way of the samurai, was the unwritten code of honour by which the samurai were supposed to abide. It included the idea that the warrior should be utterly devoted to his lord, even to the point of committing suicide if his lord was killed. Go back.

5. While Japan has had a democratic system with elected representatives since the post-war period, it functions quite differently than Western democracies. In Japan, the people can elect representatives for their local prefecture, affiliated to a political party. It is then these representatives who elect the Prime Minister. There is still an Emperor, but he is now a symbol rather than an important political figure. So, the national leader is not directly decided by the people. Also, it is worth noting that the same political party has been in power since 1958.Go back.

– Actually, it seems you’re in your thirties yourself. Be honest : How does it feel?
[Mentally, I’m in my late teens, so not much has changed. I’m 34 now, turning 35 soon. Thinking about that is…… kinda scary.]

– Scary……. What’s scary about it?
[What’s so scary? Back in elementary school, when I was a kid, I used to think that 30-somethings were so old. I haven’t changed that much since back then. Even though I’m that age myself. Am I allowed to be 30? I wonder (laughs). Of course, I have matured a little bit since elementary school (laughs). But in high school, at 16 or 17, I felt like I was done growing up. But that, doesn’t everyone do that? Not change that much after reaching 16 or 17? If you think about it, it’s a wide stretch of maturity compared to elementary school.]

– I think there certainly is a part of oneself that doesn’t change after those days. But even so, now that you’ve passed into your thirties you must feel like you’ve changed somehow. In the mental sense, regarding maturity.
[Seriously?! I totally haven’t (both burst into laughter). Nah, is that more or less maturing? Even for me. But in my case that stretch of maturity is really narrow. Until 16, 17 I grew up reaaaally fast, all at once. Ever since then, until now, it’s been so much slower, I really feel like I’m only getting more mature a tiny little bit at a time.]

– Until the lower teens, there’s a bodily aspect to it, a sudden rush of growth that doesn’t happen anymore, that could have been scary too.
[Hmm…… Yeah, there was that too. You know, when I was little, I had this mental image of “adulthood”. Adults work hard, they think the right way and they live by those thoughts, that’s what I imagined. However, the way I am now, I haven’t become anything even remotely like that mental image of adulthood I had when I was a kid, and I’ve come to realise that.]

– As a human being, you still have some maturing to do before you can really be an adult, perhaps you’re afraid of that realisation.
[Right. Anyway, when I was a kid, I thought adults had to be something like “Sennin” (1) didn’t I? I must have.]

– As if they had to keep themselves above everything?
[That’s it. “Young people these days,” that’s a phrase adults use a lot, isn’t it? But I wonder about adults these days. I think adults today are worse than the young people. Any way you look at it.]

– In what situations? When do you feel that way about today’s adults?
[Take this for example, it happened just recently. I was in my car, at the high-speed tollgate, and there was another car diagonally in front of me. On this side of the tollgate, you slow down, right? That’s when it was. They dumped an ashtray out the window. Dumped out still-smoking cigarette butts onto the road. It’s an adult doing this, an adult! An old guy. “The hell you doin’?!” It was an “Eeeeh?” moment, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was so surprised. The point is, when I was a kid, I thought that adults did the right thing. But, there’s a ton of adults who don’t. Now that I’m an adult myself, I know. When you’re a little kid, everything adults or seniors say sounds like the right thing, you get caught up thinking that. However, it turns out that’s not the case, which you find out once you grow up. It’s the same with schoolteachers. As a kid, you think “Teacher said it, so it must be right,” don’t you? I don’t know why this makes me angry, but it’s happened that I’ve thought maybe I was wrong. Actually, it wasn’t me, it was probably the teacher saying something weird. Looking back now, I can think of a lot of instances of that.]

– When you were a child, you thought that “Adults are always right,” but it was nothing more than an illusion. Now that you’re an adult yourself, you can take a good look at the other adults all around you. How about this : Do you feel at all fascinated by the accumulation of years?
[I’ve never been fascinated by that. Because people have to get old, even though they hate it. There’s no need to admire that necessity, is there? That’s why there’s no need to go “I wanna hurry and be a grown up!” either. Some people do say that, but even people who hate getting older will end up being adults someday.]

– So, do you have any idea of how you’ll spend your thirties?
[No, not the slightest.]

– Is anything different from your twenties?
[There’s nothing tangibly different but, it’s just that knowing and thinking that I’m in my thirties feels a bit distasteful.]

– I wonder how you’ll be in your fourties.
[The idea of being 40 is hard to grasp for me. At that point, I’ll probably be better off accepting that I’m an “old guy.” But at this point, I hate the thought. Actually, as I go about my life, I don’t normally think that I’m 34.]

– Sometimes you don’t feel like you really are your age, right?
[Yeah, that’s for sure. Take this for example, I’ve got more physical strength than I used to have. Better concentration, too. Sometimes I’m more aware of those aspects of me.]

– What about other aspects? For example, do you sometimes feel like there’s a generation gap between you and younger people?
[I don’t. Ever since way back, I’ve been able to tell what’s going to be fashionable and what isn’t. That still hasn’t changed.]

– Interviewer : Toujou Sachie
Translated by Natalie Arnold

1. As previously explained in chapter 24, Sennin is a figure from Japanese mythology. He was a sage who lived as a hermit in the mountains and acquired the skill to perform miracles, as well as the ability to live forever. So, tetsu thought that being an adult meant living a disciplined, detached life.Go back.

– At the end of 2003, you performed as part of the event “Danger II” at Budoukan (1). What kind of sensation did you get from doing that show?
[Until then, there hadn’t been any TETSU69 lives yet. There was that one acoustic show I’d arranged with piano and acoustic guitar, I’d done that show, but the band I’d organised for it was only meant to play together that one time, so having this second show at Budoukan was pretty cool (laughs). I took every shortcut I could, thinking of how interesting it would be. Last summer, I played at SHIBUYA-AX(2) too, but this was by far much easier than AX. I guess I prefer the big places, after all. Playing there feels great, and the bigger the venue the more natural it feels.]

– tetsu-san, you’ve played in huge places several times with L’Arc, so there must not be much left that can surprise you. You move quite excitedly here and there about the stage.
[Yeah, I do. I’ve never gone out there planning to move around so much. I start out thinking I’ll stay in my prearranged spot and sing. But once I’m out on stage, completely subconsciously, I move around a lot. I get wrapped up in it, and it feels great. I think Budoukan’s pretty nice.]

– Beyond the size alone, you must also have some feelings about the seating capacity.
[If you were to ask me about how big AX is, I’d say I don’t find it all that big. Even from the audience’s perspective, I think that’s the case. Ain’t it tiny? The year before last, when I went there to see Duran Duran, I was thinking about how small it was, and yet they played anyway, I thought. The first time I played at Budoukan I thought the same thing.]

– It’s round, so that probably makes a difference.
[But it hasn’t got that much depth.]

– Does it feel any different going on stage as the bassist of L’Arc~en~Ciel as opposed to going on stage as TETSU69?
[There are differences between being bassist and vocalist, so it’s not a simple thing to compare. If I was bassist for both acts, I’d be able to understand the differences more objectively, but since my duties are so completely different, it feels completely different.]

– Did going on stage as a vocalist, a front man, seem smooth or was it uncomfortable?
[Well, all the members of L’Arc have taken up doing lead vocals. Thinking about it objectively, it’s quite impressive, but all of us do it like it’s an obvious thing to do, we just gotta, or else it’d feel kind of embarrassing. I mean, of course we can do that. Being with such high-level people, it paralyzes you in a way (laughs). All four of us write songs, all four of us take up lead vocals; looking on a global scale, I don’t think there are any other bands who can scatter into musically active solo projects like this. I think L’Arc~en~Ciel is an incredible band.]

– When you participated in “Danger II”, what did you make a point of?
[I’m quite sure people hadn’t expected me to be the first act to go on stage, so first of all, since I was the top batter, I had to do a great job up front so I could pass the baton to the next person. I thought it was a heavy responsibility.]

– Were you nervous before the live?
[Nah, I wasn’t nervous. It’s like I didn’t have time to be nervous. Mostly because I’m so noisy. Actually, I was pretty pressed for time in rehearsal, so I didn’t get that much of it. It felt like the show came up right away.]

– Are you nervous when you go on stage as part of L’Arc~en~Ciel?
[With L’Arc, I’m even less nervous. When I’m up there as TETSU69, I have a bit more to take care of. Speaking of which, for the singing part, there are so many things I gotta do, since singing is so much more direct than playing bass, and there are so many more points I need to be careful about. With singing, there’s pitch, rhythm, lyrics, tone of voice, all sorts of things to worry about, and yet I have to give plus alpha (3) to all of them; it’s awful. I’m always afraid I’ll mess up the lyrics. On bass, I can cover it up. I think I can cover it up no matter how often I mess up (laughs).]

– You say you mess up on bass, so what kind of mistakes do you make?
[I stop playing sometimes, just to go “Yaaaay!” or my slides will go buriririri, or it’ll go buiiin by mistake (laughs).]

– tetsu-san, when was the first time you ever performed in front of other people?
[In third year of middle school, for bunkasai(4). We were doing a cover of Michael Schenker. I’ve played bass since the start. Just so I could be in the show, I tossed together a band with some classmates, so I don’t really remember the members, I just remember that it was fun. I was unbelievably nervous, I must have been giggling in the middle of class (laughs). At the time, I was thinking I’d work on getting myself on stage. It feels great, it’s fun, I’ve thought that since the beginning.]

– Which was more fun for you, playing music or getting people’s attention?
[At the time, my playing wasn’t crap anymore, but I still wasn’t great at technique, so when I performed, that feeling of being in the groove wasn’t there at all, but, I remember thinking that it felt great to be the focus of the crowd’s attention.]

– tetsu-san, is it part of your personality to be the type to stand out?
[There is a part of myself that does stand out, but rather than stand out the most, I’d rather hang back a little; I prefer to be second or third in terms of standing out.]

– So out of the five Rangers, you’d rather be Blue than Red(5).
[That’s right, beyond just colour preference (laughs), as far as position placement goes I think I’d rather be the Blue ranger.]

– During that bunkasai, how did it feel to be watched by the audience?
[Being on stage for the first time, you mean? Nah, I don’t really remember, but first of all there were lots of people. Although, since there were lights on me, I couldn’t see the audience, so I couldn’t tell how many.]

– From then on after, you must have felt even more strongly about wanting to do live shows.
[Yeah, I guess so. But the first thing I started with was searching for other members. I wanted to have a proper band, since I was starting high school. In middle school, it was more just for fun. Being in the bunkasai, that was pretty much the only serious show we did. We had entrance exams to cram for.(6)]

– When did you start thinking that playing on stage was the epitome of performing?
[Once I was in high school, it came by pretty fast. Because I put together a band with some talented members. Our drums and bass were great, it was wonderful, and I don’t understand how anyone can stand it when they don’t have talented guys playing those parts(laughs).]

– As L’Arc~en~Ciel, you played your first live at Nanba Rockets in 1991. Did you get much of a response at that time?
[We did. We even managed to mobilize an incredible number of people into coming to see us. By ourselves, we could get about 130 people, and when we played with another band there would be around 200; it was full to bursting. So then that means our first live did get quite a response. But, we didn’t have many songs yet, and it was the first time the audience heard us, the first time they saw us, and still we were part of the scene.]

– For a first live, mobilizing so many people, as you put it, is amazing.
[We knew that we would have a certain appeal for people who liked our kind of music. Also, ever since the beginning we knew we’d be in trouble if we couldn’t bring in that kind of people. Cause, with 100~200 people, we could have just been catching the people hanging out in that area, and then we wouldn’t ever grow any bigger than that. We wouldn’t be able to grow, we wouldn’t be able to move up.]

– Beyond doing lives with L’Arc~en~Ciel, what else were you intending to do?
[Back around the time of the first live, L’Arc had only been formed for about two, three months. We had very few songs at the time, so we could squeeze out one live per month, thinking we’d increase our song count little by little. So, we didn’t want to do too many lives. Just one a month.]

– Why was that?
[So the crowd wouldn’t get sick of us. Even if we didn’t overdo it, they could get tired of us fast, so if we’d been doing two or three lives a month, we wouldn’t have time to write new songs, or enough time to focus on the music. One a month seemed to be exactly the right pace. For starters, our first live got us 130 people, and even if we had lots of people already, we still needed to make it a good live or else there would be a lot less people at the next one. If we don’t make every live a good one, we can’t keep people coming, and we won’t get any bigger. This is being picky but, every time, we wanted to be dressed differently. We never wore the same thing more than once. I used to be very particular about that (laughs). I get the feeling that recently, I might have worn the same outfit more than once. Oh yeah, and back then, we’d decided not to do any tours.]

– Normally, don’t people want to go on tour as soon as possible?
[We didn’t want to leave Osaka so soon. One of our goals was to light a fire for ourselves in Osaka. Actually, we didn’t tour the country until after we signed with the company, and we didn’t even do any lives in Tokyo until later on. It was more of a treat when we finally did. In the end, if you take a good look around you, there are already plenty of chances to hold lives, but there are overwhelmingly many bands who are hungry to go on a national tour right away. We’re different from the bands who do that. We think about things more strategically.]

– However, it’s difficult to be so objective in your judgment when you don’t have much self-confidence.
[Like I said, we thought about it calmly and decided that was the best way to go.]

– Didn’t you feel like doing more lives?
[Nah, it was enough, that one per month pace. And we couldn’t afford to buy that many outfits, either (laughs).]

– You said that if you don’t play a good live, half the audience won’t come back, but what exactly is it that makes a show be one of those “good lives?”
[A good live? First of all, the people who come to see it have to think it’s a good show, and if it makes them want to come back, then it was a good live.]

– Did you get a response when you first went on stage?
[At the time, there wasn’t much response. The performance, the staging… looking back on it now, we were still immature. First off, we were making efforts so that our lives back then wouldn’t decrease in value. We had to do the next one in a month. If we overlooked that, we wouldn’t be able to see two months ahead. On top of that, if we had new songs ready every time, we’d be able to play a new song at every live. We thought it would be nice if doing that made the audience want to come back. For the first one, we still had no idea how to do the staging, how to put a face to the performance, and so I think we were lacking in that dimension.]

– As a band, did you have review meetings after your live shows?
[Review meetings, well, I think we had some kind of meeting after every live. I don’t remember very clearly. We went out to eat after every practice, so we did have a lot of meetings. And then we never had any sort of closing, what we did was only with our own staff, we’ve been rather particular about that.]

– Why might that be?
[At that time, all the amateur bands used to invite their fans to closing parties. They’d say “3000 yen per person” and take money from their fans, then drink that money away. We never did anything like that. We kept a distance away from our fans. That’s the same now as it was back then.]

– It sounds like you’ve consciously taken a professional approach ever since the beginning.
[I think it’s just that we never wanted to be “the guys next door” or “familiar people”. It was a strategy to maintain our charismatic appeal. After the lives, there would be fans crowding around in the front and back of the livehouse, and if we stopped to have light chats with them, that wouldn’t get us anywhere, we thought. Doing that sort of thing would mean stopping. The reason is that then we’d get stuck with fixated fans. And so we chose our livehouses carefully. If the ready room wasn’t right next to the stage, it was no good. You know how in some livehouses you have to go through the audience seats just to get to the stage, right? We avoided those places. In places like that, you’re in the middle of the crowd with people all around you, walking in just like a pro wrestler, and you get touched, they get way too close to you, you know? We avoided those places and chose livehouses that were arranged so we could go straight from the ready room to the stage without having to get too close to the crowd. Then, when the live was over, the members weren’t the ones putting the equipment away. It was all done by the roadies. We didn’t want to let the fans see us cleaning up and loading our equipment into cars. We were much more thorough about that during the early days.]

– You don’t see many amateur bands go so far.
[That’s right. Since going pro, that’s been the case even more. Ever since the beginning, we’ve had a rather high-handed way of doing things (laughs). Aesthetically, too, we were strategic about how L’Arc~en~Ciel would be branded.]

– Your strategy let you become a success, so of course that strategy itself granted you a certain foresight, but given that the band’s own force is drawn from its substance, I think that both of these must drive you. In that respect, what did you make a point of doing for the sake of having the band make it big, as far as the lives were concerned?
[I certainly thought strategically, but beyond that, I didn’t dwell much on what would come next. Anyway, at that time, we were just doing what we had to do. That strategic aspect, it seems so much easier ever since we signed with our current company. Their way of doing things is a lot like what our approach was, so joining them went smoothly. Until then, it felt like we’d done nothing but upgrade our method of doing things. Our previous company mostly gave us trouble for it.]

– Do you feel that you’ve always done things your own way?
[It’s not something to exaggerate about. Well, we’ve somehow gotten this far doing things our own way. It’s just that it isn’t a question of having gotten so far because we always did things our way. We’ve had good relations with other bands, we’ve had relationships go bad and get talked about, and we’ve participated in closing parties several times.]

– Since your major debut, has there been a tour or live you would consider a turning point?
[No, I don’t think there’s any one show that could be elevated so much. Any show of any tour could be called a turning point in a way, couldn’t it?]

– Have there been any lives you were personally unsatisfied with?
[I can’t remember any bad lives, but now I remember one incident where we were playing in a rather large livehouse, and in the middle of the show, the people at the front of the crowd got stirred up, and then the head of my bass got grabbed. Right out of the blue. That messes up the tuning, you know. And so I have bad memories of not being able to play right. That’s just lacking common sense, right? I understand why they touch my feet or grab at my clothes, but screwing up the tuning of my bass, that messes things up for the other members, and also for the rest of the audience, and I don’t get to have a good time performing, either. Even now, I still remember that incident a little bit.]

– How do you feel you’ve developed over the course of doing so many live shows?
[Hmmm. I wonder. It’s been accumulating since the start, and I think all of it is still with me.]

– For instance, as a live artist, are there any goals you feel you’ve accomplished?
[No, that’s too vague, I don’t quite know. I think it all accumulates. Our first time at a livehouse drew in 130 people, but that was with another band, so we wanted to headline the next one, which drew in 300 people, so we wanted to have the next one in a slightly bigger place, then we went to a bigger venue, then it sold out, that’s what you mean isn’t it? Well, we made it all the way to Tokyo Dome. But we might want to hold the next one in a small venue we haven’t been to in a while. That’s accumulation too.]

– Early on, was it one of your goals to someday be headlining at Tokyo Dome?
[Yeah. Playing in bigger venues is correlated with higher CD sales and popularity, though the number of people who don’t buy tickets goes up, and I think that’s just because we’re playing in bigger places.]

– It felt good to play live as an amateur band, and you say it feels good to play on stage now, but is it the same kind of good feeling? Or is it different?
[It’s basically the same thing. It never ends. However, early on I didn’t feel good about singing on stage, as opposed to purely playing, but lately that aspect of it has become a plus.]

– When you go on stage for a live, what do you think about the audience? Is it more important that the people in the crowd have a good time or that you have fun yourself?
[Both, really. We think about the crowd’s enjoyment when we choose songs, make up the sets, and go out on stage, but we also think about all that being fun for us. So it’s a little bit of both.]

– Does the audience response stimulate your own performance?
[Personally, it really doesn’t, these days. Maybe it did in the past, I don’t know. Of course, whether I’m playing in an empty room or in front of a crowd clearly makes a difference, but getting a good or bad reaction doesn’t affect me now.]

– As a pro, you shouldn’t let it influence you?
[That’s what I think. Actually, it just doesn’t bother me.]

– Do you get stimulation from the other band members?
[I do. Being with such incredible members today makes me so happy. Also like, “Ah, we’re out of order today.” (laughs)]

– tetsu-san, are you the one who drags them down?
[No, I’m not. I’m just about average. Rather than have 120% days and 40% days, keeping up a steady 80 to 90% is ideal for me. I’m not really rock and roll (laughs). I’m the careful, precise craftsman type.]

– What is that makes L’Arc~en~Ciel’s live shows interesting? Do you do something that other bands don’t?
[Nah, since I’ve never been in any other band than L’Arc, I can’t really tell.]

– tetsu-san, what is your personal position on lives? Do you live for lives, do you write songs so that you can perform them live, or do you not like lives much and simply prefer to write music?
[I like both recordings and lives. Though, I wouldn’t say that I especially love live shows, and I don’t want to do especially many. But I do think it’s bad not to be able to play live. I don’t want to be one of those bands, those artists who don’t have live shows. CDs are great, but I don’t want us to be one of those bands who says lives aren’t interesting. I’d rather be an artist with good CDs who also has the greatest lives. Besides, I think that if our live shows stop being good, there won’t be any good live artists left. Or rather, that they won’t last long. Without lives, it’s like, where does this all come from? The artist might be a fake.]

– Do you think you can judge that from a live?
[No, because even if they have lives, some people still just lip-synch. We’re pros, so we can tell by looking, but sometimes I wonder if normal audience members can tell or not. Or maybe it’s more fun because they’re lip-synching. It’s more of a show, maybe they watch and think of it the same way as a Tarazuka(7) show (laugh). It could be that they’re not trying to understand it all but just out to have fun.]

– L’Arc~en~Ciel is starting another tour in May, so is there anything in particular you’d like to try to do in these shows?
[There are places we haven’t been to in a while, so I’m looking forward to that. It’s just that there are a lot of hard parts. A tour is a tour. We have to memorise all the new songs, as well as review a lot of old songs.]

– Do you train your body at all for the sake of a tour?
[For “Shibuya Seven days 2003” I went through a physical remodeling program, since I thought I’d need it before I could go on stage so much. If I hadn’t, I’d be in crappy condition (laughs).]

– Since you’re a pro, you had to face what was necessary.
[At the core, it’s like what athletes go through. Going on stage, being on tour, that is. Even performing, it’s your body that does most of the memorizing. Even when I can’t remember a song at all, I can listen to it two or three times, then play it again completely naturally. That’s a mysterious thing.]

– Interviewer : Hasegawa Makoto
Translated by Natalie Arnold

1. Previously mentioned in chapter 23, this 2003 show included as guests TETSU69, S.O.A.P., and Acid Android, as well as a special L’Arc~en~Ciel performance of Ready Steady Go that was included on the SMILE DVD.Go back.

2. Shibuya AX is a venue located, as the name suggests, in Shibuya. It seats around 1500 people, which is tiny compared to the immense Budoukan’s 10000+. Go back.

3. This strange bit of phrase appears to be a Japanese slang used as a superlative.Go back.

4. As explained in chapter 29, bunkasai translates to “cultural festival” and is a yearly event in Japanese schools. Students put on shows, either with friends, with their clubs, or with their classmates. People living near the school are invited to attend and enjoy the student’s shops, decorations, and performances.Go back.

5. This is a reference to Power Ranger type action shows, in which the Red ranger is usually the leader and center of attention. Go back.

6. The third year of middle school is the last one before high school, and so it is characterised by a lot of preparation for the entrance exams needed to get into high school. And so, tetsu is saying that they didn’t have time to be a serious band since they were so busy at the end of middle school.Go back.

7. Takarazuka is a Japanese form of theatre in which all parts are played by women. The fake aspect of these shows lies in the fact that none of the male characters are actually played by men, so romantic scenes, for instance, tend to seem quite fake.Go back.

– The world of musicians, professional ones, and who on top of that have attained such immense success, is a world open only to a handful of people. Professional actors are in that same kind of world, aren’t they?
[Eeh! Is that so? So, actors make good money, do they?]

– For example, if it was America, after being in just a single movie, they could live as mega celebs, but the Japanese movies don’t seem to have that sort of system in place. Actors think they can get by appearing only in movies, but it’s not like America. They need to be in CMs, TV dramas and things like that too.
[Is that how it is? I only knew musicians, and you’re telling me actors don’t make all that much profit either…… Like I thought, the Japanese system is strange. It’s like this for soccer players, too.]

– For soccer players, their lifespan as pro athletes is quite short, which makes it all the more terrible. What’s more, after they retire, for instance, there really aren’t many people who can make a living based on soccer. The ones who can’t end up needing to start a second life, and so a lot of those people end up making a living with a delivery service or something.
[Oh, really~? That’s so painful.]

– Baseball players at least have a longer active lifespan than soccer players do. In that area, how are things for pro musicians?
[I think we need to put more money into the system, or else some good people won’t be able to survive.]

– It’s a realistic problem, since you can’t live off dreams alone. It’s a harsh story.
[I only know about the music world, but the right to declare someone a musician is really restricted. Since only the record companies have it. Like for putting up buildings (laughs). Compared to Europe and America, Japan doesn’t put much money into supporting its musicians. Relative to the past, we did catch up pretty fast but we’re still behind the west. Among musicians, I think there are also people who say “Just becoming a pro would make me happy” or “I’ll be happy if I can just release a CD”. But it’s not just that, it’s more, as far as the music world goes, and sports figures, and actors…… It’s just that, if there isn’t more money put into the system for these people, there won’t be anything good happening, no one will be able to produce anything good.]

– Following that, people with talent might give up on Japan, and then they’ll quickly go overseas. We should make the system better, so that we can defend the worth of our own social aspirations.
[What would be the best way to make a system that makes sure Japan’s professionals get money? (laughs)]

– Hmmm…… Make sure the people we call pros are in a position worth aspiring to, much as I said. It’s not enough to tell them to do their best (laughs).
[But, if you think about the salarymen, one person could work for their entire lifetime, and they still probably won’t make a high enough salary to affort to build their own house, right? So how about that? That’s just madly maddening. The system is. Because, you have people saying “Our loan has a 35 year repayment plan,” so you’ll be paying for that loan until you’re how old? Or something. I absolutely can’t stand that. It means those people are already gamblers. ‘Cause, you have no clue what your income’s going to be thirty years from now (laughs). But even so, they take out those loans. That must be quite the sensation. Knowing that you’re going to be working for the same company for your entire life, I mean.]

– How is the social rank of a musician in Japan?
[I think I’d like kids to want to be musicians, chart toppers when they grow up. A friend of mine told me that in places like England, lots of kids say they want to be soccer players or musicians when they grow up. Most parents will even tell them to go for it if that’s what they want. In Japan, that doesn’t really happen, does it?]

– If a kid were to say “I want to be a musician when I grow up,” even these days, most parents would be opposed to it, after all.
[But in England, everyone has the idea that if they become soccer players or musicians, then they’ll be rich. That’s why I want Japan to be that way, too.]

– You want to give kids the dream of becoming a musician, then. Since the J-League(1) was formed, there’s been a sudden increase in the number of kids saying “I want to be a soccer player when I grow up.” But, there doesn’t seem to be many kids saying they want to become ranking musicians. That must mean it still isn’t seen as a major occupation.
[Yeah, there’s still that image of how awful it is to be at the lowest rank(2), isn’t there? And then, it seems like only a handful of people ever succeed at it. Wonder how come?]

– Perhaps if, like Nakata Hidetoshi did for soccer(3), there were to appear a musician who could compete equally at an international level, that point of view would change?
[A musician like that doesn’t exist, and I think that can’t be helped. It’s the words, after all. In Japan, Japanese is the main language. Some people can sing in English, but really, hardly a handful have good pronunciation, right? Singing with badly pronounced English, I don’t think that’s going to make people overseas listen and pay you for it. So, as much as Japanese people might think “This sounds like Western music,” “I bet this could be a hit overseas,” it won’t be successful there. That’s because they already have plenty of that kind of music overseas. They won’t go out of their way to buy a Japanese musician’s products. I think if any Japanese music has a chance to be successful overseas, it’s Japan-like stuff. Asiatic, exotic stuff. Besides, getting something Japanese to be a success overseas is mainly hard, isn’t it? A softer success is something like animation right? But, when that animation goes overseas, they can dub over the dialogue. When athletes go overseas, the language they speak doesn’t really matter. Since it’s a world where you advance by applying a practical skill. Talking through music doesn’t work the same way. Within Asia, Japan is the subject of admiration, so to an extent, people are more willing to listen to something that’s in Japanese. Japanese is only used in Japan. In comparison, English is used in countries all over the world. It’s the official second language in even more places. That means the market is worldwide. That isn’t the case for Japanese. That means you have to focus on the Japanese population, don’t you? And so, it means there’s no possibility to broaden your market. I think if Japan had won the Second World War, history would have been changed. The Japanese language’s sphere of influence would have grown. Also, the way I see it, it would have been better if Japan had adopted English after losing the war. Wouldn’t it be easier that way? We’d all have been speaking English since we were born (laughs). We could have kept Japanese for historical, cultural things. It would be easier. The market would be bigger.]

– Interviewer : Toujou Sachie
Translated by Natalie Arnold

1. The J. League is Japan’s professional soccer league. It was officially opened in 1993, which is recent by global professional sport standards.Go back.

2. In feudal Japan, social ranking was very strictly organised by occupation, and artists fell near the bottom. They were usually very poor and did not own land, instead having to pay high taxes to live on someone else’s land. Part of this perception of artists as low ranking persons seems to have persisted into modern times.Go back.

3. Nakata Hidetoshi is undoubtedly the most famous Japanese soccer player active, if not the most famous player of all Asia. He has been playing in European teams for many years, and has been acclaimed for his great prowess while on Italy’s team. Go back.

– Speaking of inside and outside, tetsu-san, what does it mean to you?
[I generally don’t spend much time inside-out.]

– Ah, right, I can understand that.
[But I think I’m probably thought of as being that way a lot of the time. I don’t keep that much on the inside. I can’t say I don’t have anything hidden at all, cause I don’t think that’s possible for anyone. I think the ones who say “I don’t hide anything,” are definitely hiding something.]

– Ahahaha! For sure. There’s no way to not have anything like that.
[I’m human too, so I can’t say I hide nothing, but sometimes I’m stupidly honest. I think that sort of thing ends up being the reason for a lot of misunderstandings, and in a way I think it’s harmful. But, after all, in this business, even if I were to say “I’m saying this with the best possible intentions, you know?” or something, there are still people who’d maliciously twist my words.]

– There definitely are people like that, but I think that there are also plenty of people you don’t need to worry about. In the end, you have to leave it up to the other person to take your words as they will.
[That’s true. Like it or hate it. It just depends on if that person says they like me or says they hate me. Or maybe they can’t stand me at all (laughs). Though, as long as the number of people who “like” me goes up, there’s an increase the other way, too. But really, worrying about that sort of thing is no way to live.]

– But, don’t you think it’s better to have someone say “I don’t care” than have them say they “hate” you?
[Mmhmm. I don’t want to be hated, honestly.]

– Is it okay if they say “I’m not interested,” even?
[But, you know, I totally don’t understand people who go “I hate seeing your face,” without having any reason to “hate” me (laughs). I have no way of knowing if they’re going to twist what I say or if they have some hostility towards me. I genuinely don’t understand the reason, the cause for that sort of thing. That even happens with people I’ve never met before. But if there really was someone who said “I hate you!” to me, then if I were to spend a day talking things out with that person, I don’t know if they’ll come out saying “You’re okay after all,” and start liking me, or if they’ll do the opposite. There’s no way for me to tell, and there’s no end to it. Thinking mathematically, taking a population and finding out which percentage of them are anti-me would be a necessary evil. It’s a ‘Matrix’ world. (1)]

– We left it, right? (laughs). But I agree with you.
[Even in a factory where things are built, there’s a certain percentage that come out defective. Cause there’s no way to make everything perfect. There’s no way I can get a 100% approval rating (laughs).]

– In a sense, that might balance out your more impressive points, tetsu-san.
[A sense of balance, you say, but that’s “What the world is all about,” after all. Inside and outside, public attitude and true feelings, there’s all sorts of things like that, obviously. Good things come bundled with bad things, that’s how the world operates.]

– Then it’s not a matter of picking one. For example, you can’t have just peace, since there are people who live off war, and so this could lead to that sort of talk rather quickly.
[The exact definition of peace is ambiguous to begin with. Anyone can say that “wars are not good,” but they happen anyway. To the people involved in them, it’s always happening for a just cause.]

– In that case, what we all need is to share the same point of view.
[But, that’s waaaay too simple. “If they’d just think about it a little, anyone could understand,” but I guess too many people don’t even bother to think about it. That there are lots of other ways. That’s why you need to spend more time learning to look below the surface. Like when you watch TV or read a magazine. When you read something in the magazines and newspapers, you think it’s true don’t you? But a lot of the time they make mistakes or they lie to you.]

– Interviewer : Honma Yuuko
Translated by Natalie Arnold

1. In the movie “The Matrix” the whole world is run by computer programs, so mathematically determining which percentage of people hate him would be possible. At the end of the movie, the main characters leave that world, hence the interviewer’s next line.Go back.

– Radio, television, newspapers, etc. To what extent do you like appearing in the mass media?
[I don’t hate it. I do like it somewhat.]

– Is there any one media you like more, or one where you have more of an interest in transmitting your message?
[I don’t like it or hate it, but the most effective media is definitely TV. It’s the most influential, and also the easiest. With the same amount of labour, people can see and hear a lot more than they can with other media, so I think it’s the easiest.]

– But sometimes, you don’t have the chance to appear on TV.
[No chance to appear… Well, I’m a musician, so I’ll end up on TV and in magazines every time a promotion comes around. But when there’s nothing going on, even if I say “I want to go on a music show,” there’s no way they’ll let me. Without a release. Recently, we released the first single in two and a half years, so our offers have gone up.]

– Speaking of going on TV, I heard about an incident where you were on TV and the program host used the term “visual kei” in reference to you, at which point you left the show midway through broadcast.
[No, the truth about that incident has gotten pretty twisted, so I guess I’d better clear it up right away. First of all, not once have we, L’Arc~en~Ciel, said “We are visual kei.” Honestly, when I was putting L’Arc together, I didn’t use the word “visual kei” at all. But I do realise that it’s been a popular term, so we have called ourselves something similar to that (laughs). Among musical genres, rock is a genre, so are pop, punk, and so on, but visual kei is not a musical genre, isn’t it?]

– That’s certainly true.
[I think it’s a discriminating term used by people who judge only by appearances, so I said “Please don’t use the term visual kei,” to the office, and to the record company staff, so by the time we went on that show, they’d been told. However, I’ve been told that it hadn’t been passed on to the host of Bakushou Mondai (1). They hadn’t been informed, so the hosts, in order to make that segment interesting or funny, thought they’d use those words. Right before that, the four of us, L’Arc, had appeared in a newspaper ad with our heads shaved. In relation to that, they had bald wigs, topknot wigs, all sorts of wigs prepared, and they were going to use them in the talk. “You’re visual kei, so what do you think of these, please try some of these wigs on,” that was how the talk was going to go. But then, it turned out differently. First off, they weren’t even going to let us do that talk, saying there’s no way it would be interesting. And they had to get the stylists and the hair and makeup staff to set it up, then have us wear the wigs, and having us perform after all that wasn’t exactly a low-tension set up. If they had planned it out right, they should have organised things better with our staff, but they couldn’t do that. When our staff met up with NHK’s, they didn’t arrange much. And no one passed on the message “They aren’t visual kei,” to the show host. I think that was a mistake by the staff on our side, though. NHK and Bakushou Mondai weren’t at fault, that is. We aren’t the slightest bit angry at Bakushou Mondai, either. I mean, they’re supposed to make people laugh so of course they think of strange, interesting things to say. Deep down, I really think it was our staff that should have gone to greater lengths to get things going properly. Also, we were supposed to play two songs but only did one, so reportedly it looked like we just quit performing, abandoned our instruments and left, but that’s absolutely not what happened. Although they did announce that we’d be doing two songs, it wasn’t two songs in a row; we were supposed to do one song at a time in totally different parts of the show. So, we performed the one song, then when we went back to our dressing room, there was some talking along the lines of “While we do feel like doing this kind of show, the circumstances aren’t working out, and so we’d like to cancel for the day.” We addressed it with them, talking it out properly with Bakushou Mondai, then went home. Just like sports news or something, it should only have been of interest to people in the business. And still, without any problems, we still appeared on Kouhaku (2) that year. We really didn’t have a problem with the station. It wasn’t a big deal at all. But, in this business, there are always lots of people out to trip you up, that’s just how it is. And so, the story turned into something completely different, getting blown out of proportion.]

– Now that I’ve heard the story from you, tetsu-san, I think it sounds fair.
[Actually, when I first heard how far this story had gotten, I couldn’t believe it had spread so much when that’s not even what really happened. I really can’t stand unreasonable stuff like that. Yes, we do unreasonable, irrational things sometimes; we’re not always right. Even so, is that any reason to talk about us like this? Personally, as long as I’m putting everything I’ve got into something, there’s a gap that forms between me and the people who aren’t as passionate about it, then they tell me I’m selfish, picky, annoying, and so on. I can only take that sort of thing from people who do their jobs right.]

– Since you’ve been in the mass media, do you feel that misleading information about you has been spread, or that your privacy has been intruded on, or anything like that? If so, what do you think about it?
[I think it can’t be helped.]

– Does it ever make you angry?
[Sometimes I do get angry over it. A lot of the time, something will be written about me that isn’t true. But as far as entertainment goes, they’re just trying to increase their ratings, improve their sales figures, so it can’t be helped, right? It’s their job to deal with a huge, unknown number of people, so I don’t think they can stop doing it.]

– What’s your impression of music magazines?
[Most music magazines are quite nice. They’re rather friendly towards artists. They give artists a boost, you could say (laughs). Part of what they write gets spiced up, so to speak, in order to sell better, right? When they spice it up like that, it’s cool, but still business like enough, although I do feel that they go to both extremes a bit too much sometimes.]

– tetsu-san, since you have your own homepage, do you ever think it would be nice to publish your own version of things from that website?
[Not at the moment. At one point, there were a lot of things I wanted to do with it, but they all require money, and the results don’t make up for it. In the end, as far as promotions go, the conclusion I’ve reached is that it’s better to schedule TV spots and get advertisements in magazines. Homepages cost a lot of money, more than I had been expecting. There still aren’t enough kids in Japan owning computers. Working in Tokyo, you start to think “Of course everyone has one,” so you come to expect big returns from a mobile site. But actually, most kids won’t even hand over 300 yen. Before I can do what I’d like to do, I need to get a few more fans (laughs).]

– Interviewer : Hasegawa Makoto
Translated by Natalie Arnold

1. Bakushou Mondai is the name of the TV program where the incident in question took place. Go back.

2. Kouhaku Utagassen, NHK’s famous New Year celebrity program. He is implying that if there had really been a severe problem with NHK, they wouldn’t have been on that show. Go back.

This is an extract of the May 30th All Night Nippon episode where TETSU69 appeared as a guest during a show hosted by Nishikawa Takanori (T.M.Revolution/abingdon boys school). The show was primarily a NANA special, since abingdon boys school and TETSU69 both participated in the LOVE for NANA tribute album project. This translation only covers the portion of the show where TETSU69 actually participated. I would like to apologise in advance for how confusing this script can be, but the two them don’t make it easy. They talk over each other, cut each other off, and use a lot of slang.

Takanori starts by explaining about the NANA manga’s great popularity and the tribute album project. Basically, there are two bands involved in the storyline of NANA, Black Stones (Blast) and Trapnest (Trance). Each artist on the tribute album was doing a song for one band or the other. He then discusses abingdon boys school for a bit and points out that his band mates will be in the background of the show. After much explaining, there is a song from the tribute album : Ootsuka Ai’s Cherish. After the song, there is more talking on his part, a segment with fan letters, more unrelated talking, then at length he finally introduces the second guest of this show : TETSU69!

*much clapping*

Takanori: Good evening! It’s nice to have you here. Wow, so cheery!
TETSU69 : TETSU69 here.
Takanori : So cheerful… You’re cheerful when you’re solo. Why such a carefree stance?
TETSU69 : I’m not doing anything.
Takanori : Oh yeah? It seems like when you’re with you’re band, you’re always a little worried, being extra careful.
TETSU69 : Nah, I’m not. Does everyone notice?
Takanori : Probably.
TETSU69 : I think all of us do. When it’s all four of us, we’re always looking at each other like “Who’s gonna talk next?”
Takanori : Like, who’s going to answer this question? Me? (whispery) Somebody really should say something. (normal) Someone always needs to say something but you…
TETSU69 : I know, I know, I know.
Takanori : You’re always being extra careful, yourself, thinking “I guess I better say something” so…!
TETSU69 : Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Takanori : Then none of ya answer the question! That ain’t good. Totally.
TETSU69 : See, all of us do that. And we know it.
Takanori : It’s the same on Pop Jam. For the broadcast, they had to take scissors to that tape! Cutting all the parts where none of you answered.
*laughter*

Takanori : So anyway. Um… What we’re promoting… yeah! *laughing*
TETSU69 : For two, three days now, right? Oh, and thanks a lot for last week.
Takanori : My pleasure. I treated you to a meal.
TETSU69 : Well, I enjoyed it.
Takanori : No, no, no. It’s… Yeah! Well, I know you’ve been busy with Jojoushi and all, so, more than anything I wanted to make sure that your seniority in the business is respected, in the band world.
TETSU69 : But I don’t have seniority, as an artist.
Takanori : No!
TETSU69 : In this business.
Takanori : You don’t need to bring that up at all.
TETSU69 : It’s all about career history. Totally.
Takanori : No way! Actually, since I understand your feelings, tetsu-kun, I naturally thought about how I could exceed your expectations.
TETSU69 : Ah.. No way…
Takanori : Really. I wanted to, um, raise your spirits, that’s what I thought of. So that bird, that was healthy for you. Healthy, for your body. That’s all I was thinking of.

Takanori : Anyway. We’ve got some mail. From 18 year old Kirara, in Chiba. “I think this was mentioned in your last show but, it seems that Nishikawa-san had, at one point, been in a band with tetsu-kun from L’Arc~en~Ciel, isn’t that what was said? I’ve been thinking about this a lot, so Nishikawa-san, please explain the details again.” Go read Rock&Roll Newsmaker.
TETSU69 : Yeah.
Takanori : What’s with that? (they laugh) What? No, no, no, no… Hey, see? It’s just from last month right? Or the month before?
TETSU69 : Mm.
Takanori : So it’s out, in Newsmaker.
TETSU69 : Right.
Takanori : So check the magazine.
TETSU69 : The 30-year-old idols, right?
Takanori : Yeah, yeah, yeah.
TETSU69 : Mmhmm.
Takanori : The male, Japanese version of t.A.T.u.
TETSU69 : Yeah. *both laugh*
Takanori : Why don’t we do it? Impersonate Tackey & Tsubasa.
TETSU69 : Ok.
Takanori : We really should do it. At least for a bit.

Takanori : Ah, you’re dressed right for today. That T-shirt!
TETSU69 : I wore it today!
Takanori : It’s a Blast T-shirt. You didn’t need to go that far to impress the people from Toshiba.
TETSU69 : By wearing this?
Takanori : Isn’t it enough? You’ve already done enough just coming here. I understand how you feel, but why go so far?
TETSU69 : I just thought it was a good day for wearing this.
Takanori : Oh, yeah, me too. After all, it does suit this show. Better off wearing this than a jacket or something.
TETSU69 : No, but, isn’t it cool? The back of it.
Takanori : The back. *laugh*
TETSU69 : It makes a T-back. *they laugh* It’s great to wear.

Takanori : Wait, hold on, this just like when we went out to eat. I say weird things, don’t I? What was that, just now…
TESTU69 : What?
Takanori : What, what was that? And what’s that stance?
TETSU69 : What?
Takanori : Cut it out, would ya?
TETSU69 : What, stop what? *laughs* Nah, no way, no way.
Takanori : No way what?
TETSU69 : I was hoping just once…
Takanori : *laughs* I see.

Takanori : By the way!
TETSU69 : Yes!
Takanori : About LOVE for NANA.
TETSU69 : Yes.
Takanori : You participated.
TETSU69 : Yes.
Takanori : As TETSU69.
TETSU69 : Yes.
Takanori : That’s what this is about. Eh… Since you participated. So. You know the story, don’t you? Cause you read the original and liked it a lot, didn’t you?
TETSU69 : Yeah, yeah, yeah. I read it a long time ago.
Takanori : Yeah?
TETSU69 : A friend recommended it to me.
Takanori : Uh huh.
TETSU69 : And even though I don’t normally read manga, I had a look.
Takanori : Even though you don’t like to.
TETSU69 : I can like manga sometimes.
Takanori : So, you like it a lot?
TETSU69 : Yeah, well, no, I don’t ever read any.
Takanori : Oh really, but it seems like you really really like this one.
TETSU69 : Doesn’t it? Even I read this manga… It doesn’t feel like a manga, that’s what my friend told me.
Takanori : Yeah.
TETSU69 : First, Kagen no Tsuki was recommended to me.
Takanori : Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
TETSU69 : It’s Yazawa-san’s, and it’s only three volumes so…
Takanori : Mmhmm, t’s okay when it’s short.
TETSU69 : Yeah, it’s short, so I figured I’d read it since it was recommended anyway it was really really interesting.
Takanori : Mm.
TETSU69 : So, then I asked if Yazawa-san had any other good ones.
Takanori : I see.
TETSU69 : So NANA was suggested.

Takanori : So now, it’s pretty good.
TETSU69 : I read it when it came out, 3 or 4 years back.
Takanori : Yeah, a while back.
TETSU69 : Yeah.
Takanori : Wow.
TETSU69 : And I even had a chance to meet Yazawa-san.
Takanori : Oh yeah, on that day where we had the conference, me and you, tetsu-kun, and
TETSU69 : The press conference.
Takanori : Yeah, with Toshiba.
TETSU69 : Yes yes yes yes.
Takanori : At their headquarters. On the day of the press conference, seems like Yazawa Ai-sensei came too.
TETSU69 : That’s right.
Takanori : Yazawa-san was there too, and it was my first time meeting her. We talked for suuuch a long time, I felt like I’d known her since forever.

TETSU69 : Oh, yeah, that’s right… about three days ago, Yazawa-san sent me this T-shirt.
Takanori : What? Really?!
TETSU69 : Yep.
Takanori : Woah.. and it’s pink, even.
TETSU69 : Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Takanori : You’re such a dirty guy, with the loving pink and all. (Note : In Japanese, a softcore porn movie is often called a “Pink movie”)
TETSU69 : I love it.
Takanori : Cause you’re a pervert.
TETSU69 : *laughs*

Takanori : Everyone, you might not think that he’s this kind of character, but he really is a pervert.
TETSU69 : Hey, I think some of them already knew that.
Takanori : Yeah.
TETSU69 : From me, though. There’s no gossip left.
Takanori : But you really are a pervert.
TETSU69 : Totally.
Takanori : But, hey, you know, everyone, whenever they’re asked about you, tetsu-kun, they say you’re stoic, that sort of thing, even the girls say it. If you asked concerning love stuff, they’d be like, NO way or something.
TETSU69 : Mm. Think everyone has that impression?
Takanori : They do! But you’re a pervert!
TETSU69 : It’s so surprising… unexpected.
Takanori : That you’re a total pervert?!
TETSU69 : Nah, it’s like, I’m the only one who isn’t.
Takanori : Nooo way!
TETSU69 : Out of L’Arc?
Takanori : Oh, right.
TETSU69 : Mm.
Takanori : No, but, well, with the other members, see, one way or another, it’s kinda become part of their sex appeal, if you know what I mean.
TETSU69 : Yeah.
Takanori : It’s like, they’ve gotten caught up in their own perversion.
TETSU69 : Right, right, right.
Takanori : Or something. But with you, it’s more like… “less so.” So it only comes from rumours, like they expect you to be all “Eh… Nuts? What are you talking about?”
TETSU69 : What does “nuts” mean?
Takanori : Nuts, like… Wha? Are you kidding me?
TETSU69 : Hahaha *laughs*
Takanori : Enough out of you, Mr pervert.

Takanori : OK, the mail! I totally forgot about it.
TETSU69 : I totally don’t get it.
Takanori : Totally. *reads a letter* From : A 20 year old in Aichi, using the radio name Ali. “Normally, on tribute albums, people do cover songs. I thought this was the rule. But this time, it’s a tribute album for bands that come from a manga, so the songs are all original. Wasn’t that difficult? What kind of image did you have in mind when creating these songs?”
TETSU69 : I get it.
Takanori : Yeah.
TETSU69 : Well, I’m Takumi after all.
*They laugh*
Takanori : Oh yeah, sure you are.
TETSU69 : I’m Takumi.
Takanori : Mm.
TETSU69 : Hardships and everything…
Takanori : *laughs* It’s true, though. Takumi’s a bassist, too.
TETSU69 : Bassist and band leader.
Takanori : Right, right, right. Takumi was, um… he’s in the band Trapnest. Eh… Even in the backstory, he was set on making it in the city.
TETSU69 : Right…
Takanori : So, he’s bassist and leader.
TETSU69 : That’s right.
Takanori : So that’s it. You’ve got lots in common.
TETSU69 : Common points and everything. He’s me.
Takanori : *laughs*
TETSU69 : I’m Takumi?

Takanori : Ah, yeah…. So now
TETSU69 : There is one difference between me and Takumi!
Takanori : Now… Now what?
TETSU69 : If I was Takumi, I’d go for Reira.
Takanori : Ah! What the… that surprised me. I see. If you ask me, I’d say the difference is that Takumi’s hairstyle looks kinda more wild, or something like that would be the difference. *laughs*
TETSU69 : Sorry. *laughs* We’re totally different that way.
Takanori : Hahhaha *laughs*
TETSU69 : No way!
Takanori : Yours is too short! *laughs*
TETSU69 : No way. Hey, this is a radio show, so the people listening have no idea what my hair looks like right now. *laughs*
Takanori : Unbelievable. *laughs* Back then, three days ago, when we went out to eat, since we were eating we were looking down the whole time.
TETSU69 : Nah, it’s short…
Takanori : You cut it too short, don’t cut it anymore.

TETSU69 : Hey, by the way..
Takanori : Hm?
TETSU69 : So you know, if I ever need a new stylist…
Takanori : *laughs*
TETSU69 : Well, you never know! See, about two months ago, I went blond, you know?
Takanori : What if you made it pink?
TETSU69 : I dunno about that…
Takanori : You don’t know? Then you gotta try it!
TETSU69 : No, no, no, no, no. I’m pushing 35, don’t even know about this blond.
Takanori : *laughs* Don’t let yourself think about it too much.
TETSU69 : But I kinda do.
Takanori : Totally… I understand. So, while reflecting on that, here’s a song. *laughs* It’s that time, so wanna introduce the song?
TETSU69 : Okay.
Takanori : This comes from tetsu-san himself, please appreciate it.
TETSU69 : So, listen to the song! TETSU69’s REVERSE.

(REVERSE plays, then some CMs, a recorded bit from Kimura Kaela…)

(Eventually…)

Takanori : Tonight, on Nishikawa Takanori’s All Night Nippon, it’s a LOVE for NANA special and a fellow artist participating on the album, tetsu-kun, is here as a guest.
TETSU69 : Yes! And it’s a pleasure to be here.
Takanori : Yeah, so… For the entire commercial break, there was a lot of sexual harassment going on.
TETSU69 : Yeah, really. And we talked about music a lot, too.
Takanori : You’re really horrible.
TETSU69 : Been doing a lot of that lately.
Takanori : Yeah, to me.
TETSU69 : What what what?
Takanori : It’s kinda, kinda deeply rooted in you.
TETSU69 : What is?
Takanori : Um, well, you’re so very demanding. You really are, tetsu-kun.
TETSU69 : Nah, but I certainly need a lot, I really need a lot of attention. I do.
Takanori : *laughs*
TETSU69 : I do.
Takanori : Something bad?
TETSU69 : When I go out someplace, I’ll go in and I can’t figure out the menu, so I’d go “Pick for me.”
Takanori : *laughs*
TETSU69 : So eeeverything gets picked for me.
Takanori : But, hey, sometimes I can’t figure it out either. Like when it says Negima or something, I have no idea what Negima is supposed to mean.
TETSU69 : Nerima? Or something. (Note : Nerima is a district of Tokyo, and Negima is not a word)
Takanori : Yeah, so nothing… I’ll let someone else take care of it. Get someone, and the rest will take care of itself.
TETSU69 : I can’t picture that *laughs*
Takanori : And after that, like after you leave the place and head off to work, they could walk you there and then split and go home.
TETSU69 : Yeah, OK.
Takanori : But me, I’d wonder if they’re ok, if they made it home safe, that sort of thing. I’d worry constantly.
TETSU69 : It’s real close though.
Takanori : Huh? Close to the shop you mean?
TETSU69 : Yeah.
Takanori : That’d be real nice *laughs*

Takanori : Okay! Just now, we received a message from Kimura Kaela-chan.
TETSU69 : Yeah.
Takanori : Ah… she’s on the LOVE for NANA Only 1 Tribute album too. Lots of other artists participated, including Tommy heavenly-san.
TETSU69 : Yeah.
Takanori : To the sixth.
TETSU69 : The sixth?
Takanori : And then, the first ones they put in magazines were Ootsuka Ai-chan and Do As infinity, right. And Hotei-san, even. Hotei Tomoyasu-san. Eh… And then there was… Takamizawa Toshihiko-san. Yeah, Takamizawa-san. And then Circuit-san from SEX MACHINEGUNS, too, and others, all sorts of other artists were there, too.
TETSU69 : Right.
Takanori : Right! *laughs*
TETSU69 : Ohh!
Takanori : Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That’s good, that’s good.
TETSU69 : Hoo, hoo.
Takanori : Feels good, feels good. Too good!
TETSU69 : Yeah!
Takanori : Not saying anything, are ya?

Takanori : Pen name : Tetsu.
TETSU69 : Wha? This? Wahahaha!
Takanori : “Nishikawa-san and tetsu-san…
TETSU69 : Wahahaha! *laughing*
Takanori : Shaddup! “Out of the artists on the LOVE for NANA album, other than yourselves, when you heard an artist’s song, which one made you think “Hey, this is exactly what I imagined!” ?”
TETSU69 : No, no, no, well, I guess that would have to be, um, A?
Nishikawa : Oh, yeah, sorryyy.
TETSU69 : B?
Nishikawa : I said I’m sorry already.
TETSU69 : A, B, what it is again?
Takanori : abs? (Note : abingdon boys school; tetsu can’t pronounce it and Takanori is sorry the name is so hard to say.) Sorry.
TETSU69 : Yeah, abs.
Takanori : No way, do you really mean that?
TETSU69 : I was astonished!
Takanori : I just listened to the album, and right after tetsu-kun, right after tetsu-kun’s song, that’s when it plays.
TETSU69 : Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Takanori : It makes for a combination, a good one. Especially. It’s like an ensemble, after this large-feeling song you get this one that’s powerful, all forceful.
TETSU69 : What feeling?
Takanori : Makes you wanna cry, I mean that’s a good thing!
TETSU69 : *laughs*
Takanori : Yeah, yeah, isn’t that good? What I meant.
TETSU69 : Nah, I’m surprised.
Takanori : Oh, really?
TETSU69 : Surprisled.
Takanori : Surprisled? (Note : tetsu just mangled the word “surprised” into nonsense)

TETSU69 : Actually, when I saw your members, I was surprised.
Takanori : That’s right, two of them are trial members.
TETSU69 : Yeah.
Takanori : They are people I was introduced to at your own live show.
TETSU69 : Mine, yeah, I tried them out as members for TETSU69 shows. Those two.
Takanori : *laughs* I get it, but this talk is kinda…
TETSU69 : about abs.
Takanori : I get it, so just…
TETSU69 : Like, When did that happen?!
Takanori : I get it! *laughs* This chat dragged on a little too much… So anyway, now we’ve got a song from Kimura Kaela-chan, here’s Kimura Kaela-chan’s Twinkle.

(Twinkle plays, then some CMs, including a call to send email questions to the show)

Takanori : Okay! So, by the way, tetsu-kun.
TETSU69 : Yes.
Takanori : We have another email. From pen-name Kioto.
TETSU69 : Mm.
Takanori : Hmm… “I’ve heard that this year, tetsu-san will be working on both L’Arc~en~Ciel and on his solo project, so I was wondering how the later half of this year would shape up.”
TETSU69 : The later half?
Takanori : That’s right.
TETSU69 : About the rest of the year… I haven’t decided yet.
Takanori : Yeah, but… Well, yeah, you could do solo.
TETSU69 : Hmm, but, well, I have been thinking about doing solo work.
Takanori : Mmhmm.
TETSU69 : So, so, the later part of the year will be solo.
Takanori : Oh, really?
TETSU69 : Mm.
Takanori : But, hey, aren’t you going to be on tour until fall? Going to Asia and all.
TETSU69 : Mm, oh yeah. There’s that tour, but I still have time late in the year for recording. Solo. Mainly solo.
Takanori : Sooo, that’s good, that’s good. And next month, L’Arc~en~Ciel’s album comes out.
TETSU69 : Yes.
Takanori : And, after that, well, you’ll have all sorts of stuff to do for the release, and then that tour.
TETSU69 : The tour’s in August and September.
Takanori : Yeah, and you’re doing some shows overseas.
TETSU69 : Yes.
Takanori : Yeah. It’s been a while since I last took a taxi, but I took one to get here. See, lately, in taxis, they’ve got something written above the meter.
TETSU69 : They do.
Takanori : It was like “Travel in Asia with L’Arc~en~Ciel” or something, like a package tour with JAL (Note : Japan Air Lines).
TETSU69 : Right.
Takanori : Oooh! When I saw that, I noticed it said L’Arc~en~Ciel! So I was thinking, that’s really cool!
TETSU69 : Yeah!
Takanori : It really is, it made me go “Whoah!” And “I wonder if they know…”
TETSU69 : *laughs*
Takanori : Sometimes, sometimes you don’t. But anyway, this time it’s tied in to the band’s activities, with those concerts and the release that’s coming up.
TETSU69 : Yeah.

Takanori : So, heading solo again. Well, at least for the end of 2005.
TETSU69 : Near the end, yeah.
Takanori : It sounds like you’re still thinking about it.
TETSU69 : I’ll make solo the main thing.
Takanori : Yeah, really.
TETSU69 : I’m thinking about it.
Takanori : Mm.
TETSU69 : But I still haven’t decided anything.
Takanori : Ah, I see.
TETSU69 : Yeah.
Takanori : Well, possibly, if you get a chance, um, I don’t have a bassist or drummer, so there could possibly be some collaboration.
TETSU69 : Oh, yeah.
Takanori : With you, on abingdon boys school’s bass. Normally.
TETSU69 : Could do that.
Takanori : But we might not actually play any songs.
TETSU69 : Hm.
Takanori : Well, you know? Um, actually, this solo isn’t just for this album, there’s another release planned.
TETSU69 : Mm.
Takanori : Yeah.
TETSU69 : I don’t got too many songs though.
Takanori : To release?
TETSU69 : Though I have lots in my stock.
Takanori : But those were meant for the band, though.
TETSU69 : Hm.
Takanori : So, definitely, the image would be, well, if you had yourself in mind for it, you’d make it with a different sort of image, wouldn’t you?
TETSU69 : For me, it’s not all that different.
Takanori : Oh, really.
TETSU69 : Yeah.
Takanori : Eh, so then, what makes you decide if, say, it’s a song for your solo or if it’s a song for the band? Aren’t they different?
TETSU69 : No.
Takanori : No?! Ah, maybe if you can, then you want to try it with the band first.
TETSU69 : It’s like either way is good.
Takanori : Wow, that’s kinda…
TETSU69 : It’s timing.
Takanori : Oh, I get it.
TETSU69 : Sometimes timing determines what’s what.
Takanori : Ah, that’s how it is.
TETSU69 : For me, yeah.
Takanori : Eh.. Understood.

Takanori : So, now, well, at least for now…
TETSU69 : Yes.
Takanori : Um, tetsu-kun, you bothered to come all the way here to be the special guest in this corner.
TETSU69 : Yes.
Takanori : Well, um, we might lose track of each other, but you’ll say hi to the other members for me, anyway, won’t you?
TETSU69 : Sure.
Takanori : Okay. Well, I guess it might be hard for you, coming on the radio and talking like this, doing this sort of thing, kinda.
TETSU69 : Yeah, it is.
Takanori : I think it’s worth pointing out. And so, now let’s do this together.
TETSU69 : Okay.
Takanori : This has been our guest, TETSU69, tetsu-kun.

Both : Thank you very much!

Takanori : Well that was rather… half-hearted, don’t you think?
TETSU69 : In the voice, yeah.
Takanori : *laughs* Thank you very much!
TETSU69 : Thank you very much!

The show goes on, but tetsu is no longer there, so the translation stops here.