– During your childhood, how did you imagine the world would become by the 21st century?
[I imagined myself as an upstanding adult, actually (laughs). Well, it’s pretty common, but I thought there would be floating cars; I guess I thought the world would be like it was in old sci-fi movies I’d seen.]
– You weren’t the kind of kid to let your imagination run away when it came to the future?
[What kind of kid was I? I guess I was the realistic type.]
– tetsu-san, when you were in elementary school, Gotou Tsutomu’s “Nosutoradamusu no Daiyogen” was a huge hit (1). According to that, there shouldn’t have been a 21st century at all. What are your thoughts on that?
[I think I partially believed in it. Like, in 1999 I’ll turn thirty, I’ll have lived long enough already, or so I thought back in elementary school. You know, I read Gotou Tsutomu’s “Nosutoradamusu no Daiyogen” again in 1999. The newest edition (laughs). There is one. It came out just before July of 1999. “It’s soon. Wonder what’ll happen,” and “What’s the point he wants to make, now?” But you know, even I thought something might happen. Even if it wasn’t in the seventh month. I didn’t think it would be that accurate. I thought something sort of similar would probably happen around that time. In the end “it” turned out to be 9.11 right? “From the sky will come a great King of Terror,” it said. And somewhere else there was a line about “two” of something, that would be the Twin Towers.]
– However, that happened in September of 2001.
[There are other ways of counting dates, and even so it’s very close for something predicted that long ago. In the end, predictions from the past always get distorted, don’t they? So if you take that distortion into consideration, it’s not all that far off. Besides, it doesn’t say anywhere in that prediction that the world will end or that humans will go extinct or anything like that. Just look at the line “From the sky will come a great King of Terror,” that part happened, after all. Over a long span of time, being off by a year or two doesn’t mean a whole lot. Considering its a prophecy from thousands of years ago (2).]
– That’s true. The 21st century started in 2001, so do you have any memories of the instant the 21st century began?
[The first moments of 2001? What was I doing again? Were we on “Kouhaku (Utagassen)”(3)? I think we were, doing “STAY AWAY”. So yeah, I guess I was somewhere in NHK Hall.]
– I suppose you don’t remember it very clearly. Do you perhaps have stronger memories of the initial moments of the year 2000?
[Yeah. Because we were having our “RESET>>LIVE*000”. It was our first countdown live, in fact it’s the only one we ever had.]
– I see. Ah, why is that? Was there actually some kind of tangible feeling the moment the year changed over?
[Nah, there really wasn’t. Oh, there was the Y2K bug, wasn’t there? As soon as 2000 hit, all the power was gonna to go out, or something. Right before the live, we rode around in a helicopter, so I wondered “Is this helicopter gonna crash?” and stuff. After that, the helicopter won’t be able to fly anymore, right? That sort of talk. We were last. Going from NHK to Odaiba (4) by helicopter was so much fun. Because there was so much traffic congestion underneath us. Up above the traffic, we went wooooooosh all the way to Odaiba in ten minutes. The NTT Docomo building in Yoyogi (5) was in the middle of construction, and I remember thinking “Hey, what building is that?”]
– It’s actually been over three years since the 21st century arrived, so how does it compare to the image you had when you were a child?
[It’s pretty different. We haven’t gotten that far. The world isn’t like a sci-fi movie or anime. And Atom hasn’t been born yet, either (6). It means we haven’t quite caught up yet. And there’s no cure for baldness yet, either.]
– You thought about curing baldness? When you were a kid!? (laughs)
[I did think about it when I was a kid, yeah. I thought I’d hate to get bald when I grew up. But, I figured that by the time I got that old, there would be a cure for baldness so I didn’t have to worry. But it doesn’t exist yet.]
– On the other hand, what aspects of the 21st century are close to what you imagined?
[Let me see… Is there anything at all? The world today isn’t that different from how it was then, is it? There was already a shinkansen (7). Airplanes haven’t changed much, either. I guess there haven’t been many changes since when we were young.]
– Then, how about you yourself? Are you anything like you thought you’d be in the 21st century?
[I had no idea I’d be doing this kind of work, for one thing. I didn’t think I’d be able to make a living with music. It’s strange, isn’t it? I never really thought that far ahead. Like about what I’d be when I grew up. I must have written boring essays (laughs).]
– So, if 20th century young-tetsu met 21st century adult-tetsu, what would you say?
[Probably “You gotta do stuff right, or else.” “Do it right now, it’ll get easier later.” And I’d make sure I look healthy. “Play more sports.” “Do more training.”]
– I think you’re plenty stoic enough as it is, though. How about the opposite? What message would your younger self send to your current self?
[Message? “Think things through,” “Do things properly,” probably. “Fight to the death,” or something like that (laughs).]
– Interviewer : Kikuchi Keisuke
Translated by Natalie Arnold
[I imagined myself as an upstanding adult, actually (laughs). Well, it’s pretty common, but I thought there would be floating cars; I guess I thought the world would be like it was in old sci-fi movies I’d seen.]
– You weren’t the kind of kid to let your imagination run away when it came to the future?
[What kind of kid was I? I guess I was the realistic type.]
– tetsu-san, when you were in elementary school, Gotou Tsutomu’s “Nosutoradamusu no Daiyogen” was a huge hit (1). According to that, there shouldn’t have been a 21st century at all. What are your thoughts on that?
[I think I partially believed in it. Like, in 1999 I’ll turn thirty, I’ll have lived long enough already, or so I thought back in elementary school. You know, I read Gotou Tsutomu’s “Nosutoradamusu no Daiyogen” again in 1999. The newest edition (laughs). There is one. It came out just before July of 1999. “It’s soon. Wonder what’ll happen,” and “What’s the point he wants to make, now?” But you know, even I thought something might happen. Even if it wasn’t in the seventh month. I didn’t think it would be that accurate. I thought something sort of similar would probably happen around that time. In the end “it” turned out to be 9.11 right? “From the sky will come a great King of Terror,” it said. And somewhere else there was a line about “two” of something, that would be the Twin Towers.]
– However, that happened in September of 2001.
[There are other ways of counting dates, and even so it’s very close for something predicted that long ago. In the end, predictions from the past always get distorted, don’t they? So if you take that distortion into consideration, it’s not all that far off. Besides, it doesn’t say anywhere in that prediction that the world will end or that humans will go extinct or anything like that. Just look at the line “From the sky will come a great King of Terror,” that part happened, after all. Over a long span of time, being off by a year or two doesn’t mean a whole lot. Considering its a prophecy from thousands of years ago (2).]
– That’s true. The 21st century started in 2001, so do you have any memories of the instant the 21st century began?
[The first moments of 2001? What was I doing again? Were we on “Kouhaku (Utagassen)”(3)? I think we were, doing “STAY AWAY”. So yeah, I guess I was somewhere in NHK Hall.]
– I suppose you don’t remember it very clearly. Do you perhaps have stronger memories of the initial moments of the year 2000?
[Yeah. Because we were having our “RESET>>LIVE*000”. It was our first countdown live, in fact it’s the only one we ever had.]
– I see. Ah, why is that? Was there actually some kind of tangible feeling the moment the year changed over?
[Nah, there really wasn’t. Oh, there was the Y2K bug, wasn’t there? As soon as 2000 hit, all the power was gonna to go out, or something. Right before the live, we rode around in a helicopter, so I wondered “Is this helicopter gonna crash?” and stuff. After that, the helicopter won’t be able to fly anymore, right? That sort of talk. We were last. Going from NHK to Odaiba (4) by helicopter was so much fun. Because there was so much traffic congestion underneath us. Up above the traffic, we went wooooooosh all the way to Odaiba in ten minutes. The NTT Docomo building in Yoyogi (5) was in the middle of construction, and I remember thinking “Hey, what building is that?”]
– It’s actually been over three years since the 21st century arrived, so how does it compare to the image you had when you were a child?
[It’s pretty different. We haven’t gotten that far. The world isn’t like a sci-fi movie or anime. And Atom hasn’t been born yet, either (6). It means we haven’t quite caught up yet. And there’s no cure for baldness yet, either.]
– You thought about curing baldness? When you were a kid!? (laughs)
[I did think about it when I was a kid, yeah. I thought I’d hate to get bald when I grew up. But, I figured that by the time I got that old, there would be a cure for baldness so I didn’t have to worry. But it doesn’t exist yet.]
– On the other hand, what aspects of the 21st century are close to what you imagined?
[Let me see… Is there anything at all? The world today isn’t that different from how it was then, is it? There was already a shinkansen (7). Airplanes haven’t changed much, either. I guess there haven’t been many changes since when we were young.]
– Then, how about you yourself? Are you anything like you thought you’d be in the 21st century?
[I had no idea I’d be doing this kind of work, for one thing. I didn’t think I’d be able to make a living with music. It’s strange, isn’t it? I never really thought that far ahead. Like about what I’d be when I grew up. I must have written boring essays (laughs).]
– So, if 20th century young-tetsu met 21st century adult-tetsu, what would you say?
[Probably “You gotta do stuff right, or else.” “Do it right now, it’ll get easier later.” And I’d make sure I look healthy. “Play more sports.” “Do more training.”]
– I think you’re plenty stoic enough as it is, though. How about the opposite? What message would your younger self send to your current self?
[Message? “Think things through,” “Do things properly,” probably. “Fight to the death,” or something like that (laughs).]
– Interviewer : Kikuchi Keisuke
Translated by Natalie Arnold
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