#hyde's diary

[zarah-hydeist]

Throwback Thursday🌹🌷

HYDE quotes

[zarah-hydeist]

Sorry for A LOT OF TEXT 😱... but I wanted to share the full story☺️ And I ended up having to edit out some (quite irrelevant) words anyway lol (For information, "we" always refers to Hyde and the other Laruku's if not specified otherwise.)

Throwback Thursday 🌹🌷

HYDE quotes

[zarah-hydeist]

ThrowbackThursday🌹🌷 HYDEquotes

[holdbackthedawn]

Hyde’s Diary Vol.4 (1995 July 2nd ~ 1995 Oct 9th)

Found the scans at last!

[holdbackthedawn]

Hyde’s Diary Translation Links

Hyde’s Diary Vol.0 (1994 Nov 23rd ~ Dec 3rd )

http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/123036760400/hydes-diary-vol0-1994-nov-23rd-dec-3rd

Hyde’s Diary Vol.1 (1994 Dec 24th ~ 1995 Feb 13th ) http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/123131365040/hydes-diary-vol1-1994-dec-24th-1995-feb-13th

Hyde’s Diary Vol.2 (1995 Mar 11th ~ 1995 May 20th) http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/123292050760/hydes-diary-vol2-1995-mar-11th-1995-may-20th

Hyde’s Diary Vol.3 (1995 May 21st ~ 1995 June 27th) http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/123469619065/hydes-diary-vol3-1995-may-21st-1995-june

Hyde’s Diary Vol.4 (1995 July 2nd ~ 1995 Oct 9th) http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/123744547140/hydes-diary-vol4-1995-july-2nd-1995-oct-9th

Hyde’s Diary Vol.11 (1997 May 8th ~ 1997 May 14th) Part: 1 http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/134996298945/hydes-diary-vol11-1997-may-8th-1997-may-14th

Hyde’s Diary Vol.11 (1997 May 15th ~ 1997 May 22nd) Part: 2 http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/135129561400/hydes-diary-vol11-1997-may-15th-1997-may

Hyde’s Diary Vol.15 (1998 January 16th ~ 1998 March 18th) http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/125097539780/hydes-diary-vol15-1998-january-16th-1998

Hyde’s Diary Vol.19 (1998 November 26th ~ 1999 March 1st) http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/126869537825/hydes-diary-vol19-1998-november-26th-1999

Hyde’s Diary Vol.22 (1999 August 3rd ~ 1999 October 29th) http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/125531102195/hydes-diary-vol22-1999-august-3rd-1999

Hyde’s Diary Vol.23 (1999 November 7th ~ 2000 March 4th) http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/127026830495/hydes-diary-vol23-1999-november-7th-2000

Hyde’s Diary Vol.24 (2000 March 6th ~ 2000 May 30th) http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/125683226760/hydes-diary-vol24-2000-march-6th-2000-may

Hyde’s Diary Vol.25 (2000 June 1st ~ 2000 August 31st) http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/125866057680/hydes-diary-vol25-2000-june-1st-2000-august

Hyde’s Diary Vol.26 (2000 September 1st ~ 2000 November 23rd) http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/126265787960/hydes-diary-vol26-2000-september-1st-2000

Hyde’s Diary Vol.27 (2000 November 23rd ~ 2001 March 1st) http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/126452752680/hydes-diary-vol27-2000-november-23rd-2001

Hyde’s Diary Vol.49 (2006 May 26th ~ 2006 Sept 2nd) http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/127959088885/hydes-diary-vol49-2006-may-26th-2006-sept

Hyde’s Diary Vol.51 (2006 Sept 27th ~ 2007 Feb 4th) http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/128213837275/hydes-diary-vol51-2006-sept-27th-2007-feb

Hyde’s Diary Vol.52 (2007 Feb 15th ~ 2007 May 30th) http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/128580704810/hydes-diary-vol52-2007-feb-15th-2007-may

Hyde’s Diary Vol.54 (2007 Jun 5th ~ 2008 Jan 13th) http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/128726203500/hydes-diary-vol54-2007-jun-5th-2008-jan-13th

Hyde’s Diary Special in Hong Kong (2008 May 24) http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/129185686740/hydes-diary-special-in-hong-kong-2008-may-24

Hyde’s Diary Vol.57 (2008 Jan 30th ~ 2008 Aug 21st) http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/128926677610/hydes-diary-vol57-2008-jan-30th-2008-aug

Hyde’s Diary Extra Number (2012 February 18th ~ 2012 June 1st) http://holdbackthedawn.tumblr.com/post/135333583720/hydes-diary-extra-number-2012-february-18th

Credits on the page. If anyone has the others please share. :)

[holdbackthedawn]

Hyde’s Diary Extra Number (2012 February 18th ~ 2012 June 1st)

[holdbackthedawn]

Hyde’s Diary Extra Number (2012 February 18th ~ 2012 June 1st)

18th-19th Feb: WORLD TOUR 2012 Rehearsal

This was more like a rehearsal for the “LE-CIEL Members only Live” than for the actual “WORLD TOUR 2012”. I think the members only live was a rare and special opportunity for the fans, since we’d released our new album “BUTTERFLY” but never went on an album tour for it.

23rd-24th Feb: LE-CIEL Members only Live

We wanted the setlist for the world tour to be the “Best of L’Arc~en~ciel” rather than playing tracks from ‘BUTTERFLY’, but there was a part of me that wanted a chance to play them somewhere. Personally, I think I managed to fulfill my wish to do so at the Yokohama Arena live. I thought the audience would be happy to enjoy something different from the world tour – something exclusive. Of course, we did use it as an opportunity to check if the projection images and effects for the World tour were working ok, but since it was exclusive for “LE-CIEL” members, it felt very homely and comfortable. All our lives are like that, but I feel it more strongly with our members-only lives.

1st-2nd March: To Hong Kong

Promotion overseas can be frustrating because of the language barrier. I always end up thinking “it’s so difficult to enjoy this”. It’s difficult to create the atmosphere that I want, especially at press conferences and stuff. It’s also the case when we do them in Japan too, - whatever I say ends up sounding really serious – it really isn’t one of my fortes and I never really enjoy them. ken-chan is good at these things – he relaxes the atmosphere, which I really appreciate.

Oh yes, at night after the promotion, we went on those buses – the open-top ones. I thought it was the thing to do in Hong Kong. It was fun. I kept on thinking that we were going to hit the signs (laugh). After that we went to the night market. Huh? I bought something? An iPhone case? Ah yes, one that looks like a cat. No? It was a bear? Not a black cat? Huh? White? A white cat? Oh yes yes, I remember! It was the smaller Rilakkuma, the Korilakkuma! Um, yes, I used it just on that day (laugh).

3rd March: “WORLD TOUR 2012” Asia World EXPO ARENA

I've recently started to think that I’ve finally found my ‘position’ as the vocalist of L’Arc~en~Ciel. I can now express myself much better. I started feeling that since the Ajinomoto Stadium lives, and I think that really shone out during this world tour. Hong Kong was the first step for that.

4th-5th March: To Bangkok

I think the spicy sauce that I ate on the first day in Hong Kong was a little too strong. Since then I had a constant stomach ache. The spicy sauce was really tasty and it went well with everything. It was so delicious that I thought “I’m going to take this home” and even asked to take it home in a jar. When I got to Thailand I went straight to hospital, but there were lots of fans amongst the nurses, who were like “I’m going to your live tomorrow!” so I felt “Oh no but I have an upset stomach…what should I do… this is so embarrassing…” (laugh). And during the examination, the nurses were all blushing because they were also embarrassed (laugh). It was a little humiliating (laugh).

The 2nd day of Bangkok was promotion day, but the 3rd day we had off. So I visited many temples and ruins, and ended the day with a full-course meal in a restaurant overlooking the night view – I enjoyed it to the full. Recently I’ve been really interested in Buddhism. It makes me excited just looking at things related to it. Like “people have been worshipping these things from such a long time ago”. I rode an elephant too. Hmm… it wasn’t very comfortable. I never thought it was going to be THAT uncomfortable. How fast was it going? It felt really slow, but I guess since one step is so large, we were going quite fast? The cameraman was riding a different elephant, but the driver knew exactly what he had to do so he managed to drive them in parallel. It was memorable – having the elephants and ruins as the backdrop was great.

7th March: “WORLD TOUR 2012” IMPACT ARENA

The crowd’s voices were so overpowering that we had to change the ear-monitors. I didn’t actually notice though (laugh). The audience’s excitement was top-class.

8th-9th March: To Shanghai

When I go abroad, I want to eat the local foods. But with places like the US, I’m not interested in the local food, so I end up wanting to eat Japanese food. But in Asia, everywhere you go the food’s good, so by the time I’ve been saying “I want to eat this”, “next I want to eat that”, it’s already time to leave. I think in Shanghai I had some dim-sum and stuff like that.

But you know what, after the Hong Kong live, for some reason we had steak. It still makes me angry thinking about it now (laugh)! I was like “WHAT!? But shouldn’t we have dim-sum or something? Why not Chinese food?!”. It’s like going to Hakata for Miso-ramen (NB Hakata is famous for another type of ramen, the tonkotsu ramen). Unbelievable.

10th March: “WORLD TOUR 2012” MERCEDEZ-BENZ ARENA

Like I’d thought, the fans in Shanghai were very active. The fans in South Korea are loud, but the Chinese fans move a lot – like they leave their own seats during the show in excitement. It reflects the character of the people of each of the different nations. Japanese fans are shy – not that that’s a bad thing, but they’re very strictly behaved. Everybody does the same movements.

15th-16th March: To Taipei

Ah yes, when we reached Taipei, we saw lots of posters for Marilyn Manson’s live. So I thought “Ooh, when is it?”, and it was actually on that day! So I went, but it was terrible. He wasn’t motivated at all. And he’d gained weight, and was in some random black T-shirt, dressed like a normal person. Well, he was throwing his microphone around and it was in a way crazy, but I guess he knew what he was doing coz it was one hit track after another. But nevertheless the audience were excited – I guess they were happy to have him come and play. But compared to the live I saw in London 10 years ago… it was a bit disappointing.

17th March: “WORLD TOUR 2012” TWTC Nangang Exhibition Hall

Throughout this tour, the main effects and staging was the projection imaging and movies, so it was difficult to get it 100% right. It wasn’t possible to have something perfect right from the beginning. It’s hard to get everything running in time, especially since everything starts rolling only about a month before the beginning of the tour when we start to feel the nerves and excitement. We try our best, but there are always things that we have to fix during the tour. There’s also things that we only realize after we’ve actually tried it.

Same thing goes for the set list – it’s impossible to judge it until we actually try it out. Before the tour we asked the fans from each country to vote for their favourite songs, so we took those results into consideration. But I guess the fans that did vote were the more hardcore fans, so we couldn’t rely on the results 100%. But it was really informative.

21st-24th March: To New York

All you can do in a plane is sit there, so I tried to get some stuff done during the flights. Checking stuff, planning, and thinking about stuff. Apart from that, all you can do is sleep. If I think that I would be in better form if I sleep, I’ll even sleep through the meals. But with New York, I was completely confused with the time difference. It was completely opposite to Japan, so I had no clue if I should be sleeping, or staying awake (laugh). So I watched some films instead. I really enjoyed “Once in a Blue Moon” (NB Japanese movie by director Koki Mitani). I was laughing like “HAHAHAHA” whilst crying my eyes out (laughs).

Once we’d arrived in New York, I was most worried about the promotion. Because the capacity of the venue was so large. It was the Madison Square Garden. When we were being interviewed as part of the promotion, they almost always asked us things like “You’re the first Japanese to play here” or “You’re the first Asian to play here”. And then they’d go “So, how do you feel?”. At first I was thinking, “We don’t feel any different from playing in the other countries”, but after every interview that would ask us that, I gradually started to feel “Oh, since we’re the first Japanese to play here, we better look cool and do a good job. The way Japan is perceived might change because of us”. I felt, “Actually, we have the flag of Japan on our backs – we’re representing Japan”. I didn’t particularly want to make it into such a big thing, but in that situation, there was no way of avoiding feeling like that. And that was a huge pressure.

25th March: “WORLD TOUR 2012” Madison Square Garden

Because of that, after it was over it felt like we’d just finished an exam. An exam about “rock”, in which we had to write down on the answer sheet everything we’d learned in the last 20 years. Our score? I think we did ok. I wouldn't say it was 100%. But judging from our capabilities, pretty close to perfect. I think some parts were a bit stiff. But I managed the a cappella pieces without feeling nervous. As L’Arc~en~Ciel, I think we achieved a really high score.

Before the live, I thought it would feel more like we were playing an ‘away’ game. I thought the audience was going to be full of people thinking “OK, let’s see what they can do”. But in reality the atmosphere was really homely and friendly, so I felt relieved. Every L’Arc~en~Ciel live we play is to an audience that like, or are fond of us, so when we suddenly have to face an away crowd, I think the atmosphere of the band changes. And that would mean not playing at our best. So I was scared of that.

I can’t exactly remember what sort of feeling I had, but during my a cappella pieces, I did consciously think about feeling the air of the MSG as I sang. I embraced the experience and sung whilst really feeling the atmosphere. I think it was a great live.

9th-10th April: To London

I stayed in London over quite a long period whilst recording “ROENTGEN”, so I already had my favourite restaurants there. This time I ended up trying rather hard to find an Italian restaurant that I used to like. I couldn't remember the name. I wasn’t really sure of the location either, apart from the shape of the roads that I’d seen on a map. The alleyways were a distinct shape, so I thought I could find the restaurant as long as I found the alleyways. But I couldn't find it. So I drew a picture and said “I think it was like this” to my manager, who found it immediately. The first time I went to that restaurant was back at the time of “Niji”, and the pepperoncino they served was just delicious. So I went there a lot during “ROENTGEN” as well, and because I was blonde at the time, they used to call me “Golden Boy”. But……..when I went there this time round, the management had changed, and they didn’t even have pepperoncino on the menu (laugh)

11th April: “WORLD TOUR 2012” indigO2

The venue was very well-constructed. The balcony seats came out and down quite low, so I think everyone had a great time even in the balcony seats. It might have been because the venue was small, but the Londoners were really excited and going wild. But I think the first time is easy. There were fans that had been waiting for us, and lots of fans who came from around Europe. But from the second time, it’ll start to get more difficult. If a band comes to Japan for the first time, everyone goes to see them, but the next time they come, they won’t go again. It’s the same as that. So of course the live went great and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, but we shouldn’t just be happy or satisfied with that. I felt that next time, we have to do it more properly. Same thing goes for New York. But yes, London was really great.

12th-13th April: To Paris

We travelled from London to Paris on the Eurostar. We don’t usually travel by train – maybe just bullet trains? But it was completely different to the bullet train – the scenery was great, we got served food… It was like a school trip – great fun.

14th April: “WORLD TOUR 2012” Le Zenith

It was our second time playing in Paris, so as I said, we thought the crowd wouldn't be so excited compared to our previous live. But I was glad to see that everyone was going wild even before the live started. I think France is a country that’s willing to welcome and accept Japanese culture. Because of that, I think as well as the fans that had come to see us previously, there were lots of new fans too. And I think that created a good balance.

20th April: “One night only L’Arc~en~Ciel Premium Night” at LIQUIDROOM. Event to celebrate the band’s record company’s 20th anniversary

We hadn’t played a L’Arc~en~Ciel gig in a live house for a while, so it was an incredibly rare and special live. It actually went ok. We adjusted the set list so it was more suitable for a live house. It was good to do something different in between our tour. As I said during the MC, we played the gig to express our gratitude for our record company who’ve been putting up with such a selfish band like us for so long. But I think it was a valuable experience for us too.

21st-24th April: Snowboarding

Didn’t I go snowboarding during this time? I think all the random days off in between was spent going snowboarding (laughs). There was some trouble when I went this time – the ski-lifts weren’t in operation because of the strong winds. But apart from that, I spend the entire day snowboarding (laughs).

27th April: To Singapore

You know, I thought that we were going to stay at that new hotel. That high-rise hotel with the swimming pool on the roof (The Marina Bay Sands Singapore). I was convinced that we were going to be staying there, but I thought I’d ask “We are, of course, staying there, right?” anyway. But I was told “No you’re not”. And from that moment on I was moaning, moaning, moaning. Especially since it’s not often that we go to Singapore. Because of that, I really wanted to stay there, but…….really?! No?! (laugh) Really, it was literally like moan moan moan…

28th April: “WORLD TOUR 2012” Singapore Indoor Stadium

It was the first time we’d played at this venue too, so it felt like everyone had been waiting and yearning for us. The crowd were really keen, and everyone was really excited.

30th April – 1st May: To Jakarta

Press conference

2nd May: “WORLD TOUR 2012” Lapangan D Senayan

I never thought we'd be going there to play a gig (laugh). The scenery and streets felt really tropical. But the alcohol wasn't very good – there were many occasions where I felt the wine hadn’t been stored properly – but I guess it's because they aren’t used to serving it.

But the live itself was great. It was outside, and lots of people were wearing turbans because a lot of the fans were Muslims. It must have been really hot but they weren’t showing any flesh – it looked different from any other country we’d played in before. But when I saw their faces, they were excited, just like the fans in any other country. Everyone was smiling, and singing along – it was wonderful. I thought “ah, we’ve even crossed the boundaries of religion”. We’d already felt like we’ve crossed the borders of countries, and nationalities, but we never thought about religion. But this time, even from what we simply saw, we felt like we’d crossed the borders of religion. It was a concert where I really felt the true wonders of music.

3rd-4th May: To Seoul

Interviews with local media.

5th May: “WORLD TOUR 2012” Jamsil Gymnasium

There were lots of girls walking around in shorts, like Shojo Jidai (K-POP girl group) – I guess it’s because K-POP is popular in Seoul at the moment. But even in that situation, I was sure that we had the power to convince people with our own music, in a different way to such popular dance groups. So we used that as our strength. Having said that, we didn’t do anything particularly different from usual, but we did bear that in mind.

9th-10th May: “WORLD TOUR 2012 THE FINAL” Rehearsal

Because we’d added the National Stadium gig, we found it hard to distinguish between each of the lives back in Japan. In other words, because we were going to play two large venues within the Kanto region, the fans wouldn’t be happy unless we made the two sets of gigs different. So in the end, we decided to play the Nissan Stadium and USJ gigs as if they were part of the world tour. I wanted it to be the final legs of the world tour, but added some tracks from BUTTERFLY to add some premium. Especially since we hadn’t played any of the songs from BUTTERFLY since the LE-CIEL Members only live. So the gigs were like the grand finale of the world tour.

12th-13th May: “WORLD TOUR 2012 THE FINAL” Nissan Stadium

I was glad it didn’t rain on the day. Although it was cold. It was the grand finale of the past year – and I think we managed to show how the most up-to-date L’Arc~en~Ciel was the best and coolest yet. We managed to express that even after 20 years, the current L’Arc~en~Ciel was at the best that we’ve ever been.

I think it all changed from the Ajinomoto Stadium gigs. We became more 'cool' and impressive. I myself had a revelation. From the moment that I started to genuinely enjoy singing, I felt that my ability to express myself as a performer went under a drastic transition.

19th-20th May: “WORLD TOUR 2012 THE FINAL” Universal Studios Japan

I think the fans must have enjoyed themselves because the tickets included entry into the park. They could enjoy themselves all day, from morning to evening. The live? Well we had some special guests, which I think was a success.

23rd May: “WORLD TOUR 2012 THE FINAL” Rehearsal

So it felt like we had to switch gears again (laugh). Next, it was the National Stadium. We took the ideas we already had and tried to re-build and re-check them. Although we’d decided the setlist and some other things already. But we had to switch gears inside our heads. And at the same time, we also had to think about Hawaii (laugh).

26th-27th May: “WORLD TOUR 2012 THE FINAL” National Stadium

Actually, I didn’t even know where the National Stadium was, but tecchan had been saying for ages that he really wanted to play there. Since he felt so strongly about it, I thought we should play there too. So in that sense, one of our dreams came true.

As for the structure of the live, it had to be different. We wanted to make it the ultimate finale of our 20th anniversary. So we didn’t want to do any more tracks from ‘BUTTERFLY’ either. We wanted it to be like a festival, once again. So I think the special stagings, like the welcome-back parade that ken-chan suggested, and using the Olympic cauldron which signified the venue that tecchan had felt so strongly about, was brilliant. I think it brought everything together.

31st May: “WORLD TOUR 2012” Live in Hawaii Waikiki Shell

1st June: “LE-CIEL Presents Hawaii~en~Ciel Special Live” Waikiki Shell

We'd started by talking about having our ‘after-party’ in Hawaii. And since we were painfully aware that our previous “Hawaii~en~Ciel” wasn’t very well received, we wanted to satisfy everyone this time. But since our schedule was so tight, it was difficult to do anything extra, so when we thought about what we could do that everyone would enjoy, we came up with the idea of doing two shows. The first day was going to be like the world tour since we had some local fans too. And on the second day, we were going to play the more rare songs for the ‘LE-CIEL members only’ live. We thought the fans would hopefully be satisfied.

But in the meantime, one of the very close members of our crew passed away in Hawaii. It was in the early morning of the day of our first live. He used to be the editor of a music magazine, and I liked the magazine so much that I had a series in it at one point. He had been in charge of us at the time. Since then the magazine is no longer in press, but more recently he was involved in things like the production of the VAMPS pamphlets. So our most recent VAMPS pamphlet became his last creation. So it felt very strange, and it was difficult to play those Hawaii shows. Apparently, the night before, he’d told some of the staff that he liked “Bye Bye” whilst they were drinking, so we decided to play it as a tribute. We performed it at the end of our first gig, and throughout it I was thinking “It’s so cruel that I have to sing this song, at such a timing”.

He himself was a really thoughtful and warm-hearted man, so I thought that he would have hated to see us all grieving him together. So we didn't want to cancel our after party. I believed that each of us should mourn him in our own way, within our hearts.

AND SOME FINAL WORDS...

It’s not really our 20th anniversary anymore – it’s our 21st (laugh). If anyone reads this and becomes interested in L’Arc~en~Ciel, please rent the DVD of these lives (laugh). Even if it’s rental, I think then you’ll understand what I mean by “the current L’Arc~en~Ciel being the best yet”. I’d love it if they could watch it. And look forward to what L’Arc~en~Ciel has to offer in the future.

Credit: L'Arc~en~ciel UK Fans Unite (English Street Team)

_______

And that’s the last translation of Hyde’s Diary I have. 

[holdbackthedawn]

Hyde’s Diary Vol.11 (1997 May 15th ~ 1997 May 22nd) Part: 2

15th May 1997 (Thurs) We had nothing to do that day, so we came up with the places we wanted to go around London. I wanted to go to the Sherlock Holmes Museum, and because the Abbey Road Studios of Beatles fame was close by, I dragged Hirota along and set off for the Holmes Museum.

Like the London Dungeon, there were lots of exhibits at the Holmes Museum, but it wasn’t like an amusement park so it was really boring. The building was set up and decorated as if Holmes was living there, but all you could do was have a look around. In my travel guide it said that the toilet there was a must-see, so I peed there (laugh). The toilet was in the attic, and there was a massive space like a storage area behind the wall of the toilet, and it was as if anyone could be apying on you from there. There was a notebook there in which the visitors could sign their names, so there should be Hirota and ‘hyde from L’Arc~en~Ciel’’s signature in it. There was also a space where you could stick your name-card, so there’s Hirota’s name card and a card with the signature of L’Arc stuck on there. It should still be there if you go now (laugh). Although if someone’s taken it, it’ll be gone by now.

It was raining a little, but we walked for a bit to the Abbey Road Studios, whilst passing what I think is Regents Park on the way. They say the main places in London are Regents Park in the North, the Thames river in the South, Hyde Park on the left and the Tower of London on the right, so now that I’d been to Regent’s Park, I thought that I had conquered everything around London (laugh).

At Abbey Road Studios we took the well-known tourist photo, and wrote ‘hyde from L’Arc~en~Ciel’ on the studio wall with a ball-point pen, but since I didn’t have a proper pen, I think it’ll be gone in about a week if it rains (laugh). After that, we got into a taxi and stopped by at Kensington Market, but we went home without buying anything.

In the evening we went into Central London, and because Momose-san said “Today we should have Korean! Follow me!” we went to a Korean restaurant. For some reason the background music kept on playing the same song. The chopsticks were made out of metal which reminded me of a metal training frame (Note: a metal frame-work type thing worn on one’s body – how chopsticks can remind hyde of that, I have no clue!). It was heavy. The food was good, and after that we were off to a club! We first wanted to go to a pub, but the pubs were full of foreigners (Note: here we go again!), and we couldn’t find any seats… So they told us that the clubs would be less crowded at that time, so we drank beer in a club.

We were first sitting on the ground floor, but we were told that the first floor was better so we moved upstairs. But then they told us that the music was better on the ground floor, so one person after another left to go downstairs… and in the end only tecchan and I were left. But then tecchan started to sleep, so I just sat there on my own observing the people thinking “there’s so many different people…”. I think tecchan was asleep for about an hour. He then woke up looking really sluggish, and we both looked at eachother to say “shall we go home?”, so went downstairs to find that it was completely packed with people. I thought “it’s going to be hard to find Momose-san in this crowd”, and was pushing through crowds of dancing people to look for him, until someone tapped on my shoulder – it was Momose-san (Momose: I was really grooving (laugh)!). When I looked round I saw that ken-chan was also grooving (laugh). I told them that we were going home, and went back through the crowd to find tecchan, but he was gone. So I went back to Momose-san again and told him “I can’t find tecchan (crying)” (Note: the (crying) here in Japanese is actually (tear) – just imagine hyde with tears welling up telling Momose-san he can’t find tecchan (awwwww)!) and he helped me look for him. Then we found him – apparently he’d been to the toilet.

After that the two of us went outside and tried to catch a taxi, but it was really hard to find an available one, so we walked round and round Piccadilly Circus – everyone was trying to find a taxi so it was like a competition to grab one. But in the end we finally found one, and went home. At one point I’d thought that it may be a good idea to walk home, but when I jokingly suggested that to tecchan he looked really displeased (laugh), so we HAD to find a taxi (laugh).

16th May 1997 (Fri) This day we were scheduled for a photoshoot for the fanclub magazine. Each member was to have some photos taken with some sort of vehicle – on a double decker bus, taxi or train. I was the first up so chose the bus. In the morning, HIrota was making fried rice, but I didn’t have any of it and went straight to the shoot.

We left just before noon, and walked around the area around Tower Birdge… Over there (in England) the bricks are really beautiful – they look old, and have a really different texture to those in Japan. So when I said that I wanted some photos taken in front of some bricks, the cameraman took us to lots of places with different brickwork, and we took some shots there. We then ended up in an area around the riverbank of the Thames. It was an area like Odaiba (Note: an artificial island which is located in the Tokyo Bay – it’s a fashionable area facing the sea), a fashionable area with cafes – and we had sandwiches there for lunch.

With only the photoshoot with the bus remaining, we sat in a café to drink some coke – but for some reason there were no other customers – just me, the cameraman and my manager. There was a fence surrounding the café, and just on the other side of the fence there was a black cat, which was walking towards us. As I was wondering if it was going to come closer, it came just in front of a table, and without even meowing it lay down and started to roll on the floor. And it just stayed there purring. It was really cute.

After that we took some shots with the bus, and went home to hand over to tecchan. Once at home I had nothing to do, so I sat around doing nothing with ken-chan. Then all of a sudden it started to thunder, and it started chucking it down with rain – I became worried because tecchan was supposed to be taking photos in the park… But he managed to return without getting as wet as I’d feared. ken-chan was up next but he didn’t want to go until the rain stopped - so we waited for a while, but because there was no sign of it stopping we decided to go for dinner in the meantime.

We went to a Japanese restaurant which was serving lots of different types of set meals. I had Tenzaru (Note: isn’t it nice to know that even at this point hyde was eating soba… tenzaru is a cold soba with tempura on top). It had been a while since we had Japanese food. After dinner, ken-chan departed on his journey (Note: he actually writes it like that!). I think his shoot took until 3am.  

17th May 1997 (Sat) I was on breakfast duty, but I’d already started preparing the night before. Because I couldn't be bothered to wake up early and start cooking from scratch (laugh). The day before, whilst everyone was at their photoshoot, I’d been shopping. I made Chicken rice – although it ended up more like something between Omurice and Chicken rice (N.B. Chicken rice is rice fried with chicken, ketchup, onions, peppers etc, and if you wrap that all up with an omelette it becomes Omurice). The egg was more like scrambled egg, and I topped it onto the rice, which I made using minced meat. But it wasn’t very successful (laugh). It was more like “Just shove it in your stomach!” rather than a proper breakfast – like “Just eat it!”.

After breakfast, Oishi (shachou) and his crew arrived. We were thinking “They’ll have arrived in the UK around now…” whilst eating breakfast when they suddenly turned up. His “crew” included people from the record company, the concert production team, a guy from Meguro and the video camera-man. They were all so energetic, even so early in the morning (laugh). They’d arrived at 5am, but because they didn’t have anything to do and couldn't even check-in at the hotel, they had apparently spent hours walking around the streets.

Despite their age (lol hyde that’s harsh!) they wanted to go and buy G-Shocks (N.B. the famous watches from CASIO – I’d always thought they were cheaper in Japan!?) so we all went to the G-Shock store. Out of the members, tecchan was the only one who bought one. I’m not really interested in G-shocks – I don’t see what’s so great about them. After they bought their G-shocks, we left the Oishi crew. Nearby there was the Dr. Martens flag ship store so we went there, but they didn’t have the ones I wanted so in the end I bought my Dr. Martens from another store.

In the evening we went to a really posh Indian restaurant, and the adults were talking about something we didn’t really understand (LOL how cute is that – you’re an adult too love!). I couldn't really understand. It was like “Talk without the influence of alcohol!” (laugh). After that, I went home, but the others went clubbing or to a Bu-kura (a place with girls) (Note: Don’t worry I don’t think it was somewhere too seedy – just a place with female hostesses I think!). It was strange, because after dinner we suddenly lost the group of them and couldn't find them. We were like “What the!? Why did they leave us behind!?” but then we realized that THAT was the reason why – they’d been trying to get rid of us to go to this place (laugh). It was really done very speedily – one moment they were there, the next they were gone…and we were just there, baffled by their disappearance! And then tecchan and I decided to take a photo and then go home (laugh). How terrible (laugh). I had a shower and then went to bed.

18th May 1997 (Sun) We departed for Stone Henge. We met up with the crew at 11am and left together on the train. There was only one train every 2 hours, so when we arrived at the station we had to wait for about an hour for the next rain. Once we finally departed, we got off an hour and a half later at Salisbury, and were meant to get the bus from there – but there was no bus stop in front of the station! Eventually we found that the stop was about a 10-15min walk from the station, but because we’d missed the bus to Stone Henge, we were going to have to wait for another hour til the next one. So in the end we got a taxi instead. The scenery was beautiful – there was one straight road that went on and on, and because the weather was nice, it looked like we could see the horizon.

Stone Henge is a circular formation of rocks made by some people in the olden days. I’d really wanted to see it. Once we got there, we could rent a Walkman shaped like a phone which had the explanation of Stone Henge recorded in lots of different languages for tourists.  So I picked the one with the Japanese flag on it and walked once around Stone Henge listening to it. But that was a bad idea – because I was listening to it, I couldn’t really “feel” anything emotionally. I’d gone around it once but it felt like it wouldn’t at all be memorable, so I went around again without the Walkman. So that I could “feel” it with my whole body. And it was much better.

On the way home, we’d been told that there was a massive cathedral in the town so we went to visit it. It was an old cathedral that was around 200m tall, - and after feeling like our souls were cleansed, we walked back to the station. The walk back to the station was amazing too – it was a nice countryside town, and we walked past lots of houses that had “FOR SALE” signs outside. The houses were really beautiful with an amazing view – with a massive park in front of it and a view of the cathedral further on – I thought “wow, this place is really nice” but then I thought “but I bet I’ll never come back here” and continued to walk home.

In the evening, we were meant to have dinner back in London because they’d decided on a restaurant, but we didn't know where we were meant to go so it was difficult. We were meant to ring the hotel who were meant to have received a message for us with the address, but it wasn’t clear from the phone so we had to go back to the hotel and then leave again by taxi. But in the end we found the place, and ate Peking style duck at China Jazz. It was really nice. In the meantime, ken-chan and Momose-san went to a THE WHO live, and went to a place with girls again (laugh) afterwards.

We on the otherhand finished eating chinese, and then a person called Harry said to us “Let’s go for a drink” so we went with him for a drink to a place slightly outside central London. When we got there, we found the police outside – there had apparently been a fight. Harry told us “it’s ok, it’s ok” – it didn’t really seem ok, but Harry took us to the second floor of the bar, and indeed there was no fight going on. We were drinking cocktails there, when Robert, one of Harry’s friends, came up to us and said “YO!”. He chatted to us for a while – apparently he was the owner of the place, although he was really young. After drinking half the cocktail, we were like “maybe we should go home!”, so we went home (laugh).

But to go home, we could only find an unlicensed minicab… it was really scary. Our boss (Oishi-san) is quite carefree/adventurous, so he was like “Go on, you guys get in and go home!” so tecchan, Hirota and I got in the cab… And again Hirota was useless (laugh). Back in Japan he looked really reliable and dependable, but in reality, not at all (laugh). Hirota sat in the passenger seat next to the suspicious driver, with tecchan and I in the back. I think it was a Volvo, but it was a really suspicious-looking car… and we had no idea what the driver was saying to us (laugh). Whenever he was spoken to, Hirota could only say “Yes”, which meant that the conversation went nowhere because the guy was like “What?” (laugh). I was scared that we were going to be killed, and worried that we’d never get home. But at the same time, I really enjoyed the radio that was playing during our journey. It was like a top-10 countdown, but the DJ was introducing the songs by singing all the songs that were in the top 10. I thought “if they did this in Japan, it would be a hit”. For example he was singing the Cardigans whilst impersonating Elvis – it was really innovative and funny. In the end we somehow made it home safely, and I had a shower and went to bed.

19th May 1997 (Mon) Tecchan and I were on breakfast duty, so we tried to make mentai-pasta with the mentaiko that the person from the record company brought for us (Note: mentaiko is a popular food-stuff made of Alaska Pollock roe which is marinated in sake, soy sauce, and chilli. It is often eaten with rice, or pasta – hence what hyde tried to make here) – but the result was worse than the chicken rice. It was weird (Note: yes that is the adjective he uses here, lol), and turned out to be a dodgy breakfast.

This day, we went to the British Museum. I’d wanted to go there from the beginning, and since Hirota also wanted to go, we went together. Hirota had been saying “I like this sort of place, so I want to take my time and enjoy it” so I thought it’d be a leisurely relaxed visit, but once we got there, he was like “Come on, let’s hurry up and go! We’ll just go round quickly.”– completely opposite to what he’d said earlier! It was like “So you just want to see the mummies, and that’s it really…” (laugh). We looked up where the mummies were on the museum map, but when we got there, they weren’t there. We assumed that they were on loan somewhere because we couldn’t even enter the room where they were supposed to be – so we walked around saying “So we came for nothing!?” until we actually found that they were being exhibited in a completely different room. They were strange mummies. They’d had their skulls cracked open, and were buried alive as some sort of sacrifice. The Rosetta Stone was also a must-see, so we went there and found a place labeled “The Rosetta Stone” but there was nothing there (laugh). Again, apparently it was on loan somewhere. We couldn’t see Tutankhamun either, so in the end we managed to see nothing…apart from the mummies (laugh). And some other random clocks and stuff… Not that great, really. I think the mummies had been enough. As they say, better fill a man in his belly than his eye (Note: he uses this famous phrase “hana yori dango”). After that we bought some souvenirs and went to a fast-food restaurant. But you know what, they don’t have iced coffee in England – sometimes it’ll say “Iced coffee” on the menu, but when you order it, it’s just cold coffee with icecream on top…which I guess is indeed iced coffee (laugh).

The area with the G-shock store was close-by to the British museum, so we walked there and I bought another pair of Dr. Martens, and then we went home. That evening, we were going to see a Nick Cave concert, so we had to go home before then. From our flat, we’d thought that the venue was within walking distance, so we wandered there by foot, but it was quite far. The place was called “Royal Albert Hall” and was apparently really famous – the building was really cool. It was beautiful, and I thought “If only there were places like this in Japan”. Although I thought that anywhere I went around London.

Once at the concert, we were sat at the left hand side of the stage – we were quite close. But I didn’t really know Nick Cave or his work, so it was really boring. Apparently his lyrics are amazing, but we obviously couldn’t understand so we couldn't appreciate it (laugh). We didn’t want to get caught up in the crowd after it had finished, so we left during the second encore. After that we went for dinner, and found Robert there. He was like “YO!” again (laugh). Although it was no surprise since Robert had recommended us the place. We talked lots and had a great time.

That was the last evening for the Oishi-Crew. They only stayed for a short while, and there were some people in the crew that I’d seen only once at the first dinner (laugh). I’d thought that we were going to spend time together and discuss various things, but apparently that wasn’t really their plan – it was like they had just come for sight-seeing, and we’d accidently bumped into them (laugh).

So the last night for the crew was spent in a flashy restaurant where they served what they called “modern British” food. And after that we went to a club – with karaoke (laugh). That was the first time we’d had female company (laugh). (Note: I think this was the sort of Japanese place where they have some female hostesses where you can sing karaoke) But the girls in the place weren’t very pretty, so Momose was getting irritated – so I spent the night saying “Now now Momose-san, it’s alright, don’t get too irritated…”. I sung my heart out to “Time stop” by Kome Kome club (laugh).

20th May 1997 (Tues) Momose-san had already prepared some mixed-rice (Note: when you cook rice together with various ingredients/sauces so you get flavoured rice) from the night before, so we had a Japanese style breakfast with soba (Note: HERE WE GO AGAIN WITH THE SOBA!) and mixed rice (Note: this is NOT a typical Japanese style breakfast!). (Momose: We didn’t have a suitable bowl so we ate it in a wine glass) It was very posh soba (laugh). In the morning, Hirota had to go and by some Tamagotchi’s… This was because, the day before, Oishi-san had found a toy shop selling Tamagotchi’s whilst wandering around town – apparently the shop person told him “Tamagotchi’s will be in stock on Tuesday!!”, and so the night before he said to Hirota “Go and line up in the queue to buy some first thing in the morning!”… But at that time Hirota was saying, “It’s not like I’m going to be paid more because I go, so I’ll go only if I can wake up in the morning. It’s not like I’m going to TRY to go.”, but by the time I woke up he was already gone (laugh). When I asked “Eh? Where’s Hirota gone?” I was told “He jumped straight out of bed this morning and left (laugh). (Momose: He woke up and was like “OH MY GOD I’M LATE!” and hurried off (laugh). I think I finally understand what sort of person Momose is (laugh).

He came back with 3 Tamagotchis. Apparently he said “Sell me 5!” at the shop but was told, “I’m not selling someone like you so many!” and only managed to get 3. But it turned out that Oishi-san had gone himself too, and bought 16 (laugh)! I bet he was really pushy when he bought it! So in the end it was like “Hirota, what on earth did you go for? There was no point of your efforts!” (laugh).

In the evening we went to a Marilyn Manson gig. We’d booked to see him in Japan and were really looking forward to it, but we couldn't go due to unseen circumstances… But then it turned out that there was a Marilyn Manson gig scheduled in London whilst we were there!! So we managed to go to our long awaited Marilyn Manson gig.

When we got there, the town was really obsolete and dirty, as if we’d got off the train at Shin-Imamiya at Osaka (Note: I’ve never been there myself but I assume it’s run-down and dirty!?) – a really run-down place. There was loads of rubbish everywhere – a really filthy area. As soon as we got off the train at the station, there were some lavishly dressed men and ladies around, so we just followed them… When we got there, there was a massive queue that pretty much went around the whole of the venue – it was really slow and didn’t move, so we ended up queuing for about an hour. Everyone looked like Robert Smith (laugh) (Note: as in the guy from The Cure). Despite the way he dresses, Marilyn Manson is quite hardcore, so there were plenty of people who were dressed really hardcore with lots of tattoos (Note: haha little did hyde know what he would be like 15 years on!).

When we were finally inside the venue and were drinking some beer, (pseudo-)Robert Smith came up to us and was like “Give me a cigarette!” so we played stupid (laugh). He was trying really hard to gesture to us, saying something like “Cigarette?”, but we pretended to not understand and kept on saying “huh??” and then he got annoyed and gave up and left (laugh). Once the gig started there were so many people, and I couldn't see very well so I had to stand on my tip-toes throughout (Note: AWWWW), but because the stands were sloped at an angle, it felt very insecure. I’d assumed that once the live starts everyone was going to be really excited and be chaotic, but it was only the people at the front. So we tried to move forward towards them, but because there were so many people it was impossible. But it was really cool, and everyone was going crazy. Afterwards, we went to China Town and ate Peking Duck and Fujian fried rice.

21st May 1997 (Wed) The crew from Tokyo had brought with them some Tenka Ippin Ramen (a brand of ramen which is famous for it’s rich flavour), so we feasted on an extremely rich ramen for breakfast, and then headed for Brighton Beach. I’d always told Momose-san that I wanted to go there, but he would never pay attention, so I was wondering if he was ever going to consider taking us there. Plus we could never find him, so I was starting to get seriously worried if we’d ever get to go before returning to Japan – but finally, we were on our way.

The train journey lasted about an hour as we headed south. Once we got there we went to the beach, and went to relax at the funfair that sticks out into the sea - the one featured in “Quardrophenia” (Note: a British film made in the 70s set to the music from The Who’s album of the same name. It’s a pretty epic film, and I recommend it strongly, esp if you are a fan of the Who!). We just sat there doing nothing for a while. We bought hot dogs, and ken-chan was really excited by those rides that you find in funfairs for kids and outside department shops (laugh). He was shouting, “The face on this ride is amazing!!” whilst taking loads of photos. They did look quite funny – I guess they were made English-style. So he kept on taking photos. We went to the beach and relaxed for a while, again doing nothing in particular.

Once back in London, we had our final dinner with the local co-ordinator. The video-camera man had told us “There’s this restaurant that’s amazing, you really should go!” so we went there, but it was really far away. It was outside central London… he’d also said “It”s really stylish!” but when we got there, it was really quiet and hidden away…well I guess it was stylish in a way. We ordered our food, but when the starters arrived, they weren’t that good. But we thought “this is only the starter, may be the rest will be better – let’s keep our hopes up!” but we’d been fooled.  (Momose: it’s not like the food was terrible, but because our expectations were so high… plus we asked for the chef’s recommendation, which was pretty much everything on the menu, which meant it was super expensive!). We ate rabbit. And I think I drunk some red wine…I think I became drunk (laugh). I don’t really remember. (Momose: from that moment hyde became a different life-form… I shouldn’t go into the details (laugh)).

On the drive home we watched London pass by night. The camera man was driving, and he told us facts on the way, like “This is the hospital where the Elephant Man was” or “here there’s lots of formalin-specimens in the basement”. After we got home, we went to the convenience store and then went to bed.

22nd May 1997 (Thurs) On our last morning, we saw footage from the Marilyn Manson live on the news – they were showing the people lining up in the queue, so we wondered if we’d be in it – but we weren’t (laugh). We went for breakfast in a café and found a newspaper featuring Marilyn Manson news as well, so I took it with me to read on the plane.

We got on the plane, and it was goodbye to London!! On the journey home I slept really well. Probably because I tried not to sleep the night before – by the time I woke up it was only 1 hour left until we reached Narita airport.

It was a really meaningful and fruitful trip to London.

Credit: https://www.facebook.com/Larcenciel.UK.England/notes