hide's All Night Nippon R
1998.4.17
RADIO 1242kHz
AM3:00

Segment 2, pages 77-79
Translated by w_b

[Talking about his old apartment in L.A.]

Also, I mean, once in a while, this one car would drive down the one way street, the one facing the apartment, and every single time a cop was stuck on its tail.
And then everyone would drop down to the ground and pull out shotguns!
Gotta say, the guy in the car looked kind of like a drug dealer.
That kept happening so I got used to the sight of shotguns.
And then I moved, cause it got to the point where I just couldn't stand it there!
And then, something like the day before I moved, I heard this loud noise, like a vacuum cleaner.
I thought, "Shut up!"
But when I got up and shoved the window open.... So there's this movie called Backdraft, right?
There was a ton of people right there looking just like the ones in the movie, brandishing some chainsaws.
I was renting a place on the second floor, you see.
I thought, what the hell, and that's when whoooosh! All this smoke came pouring in, cause it turns out that the building next door not even 15cm away from me was on fire.
And that Backdraft crew was using chainsaws to cut the roof.
I was like, "What the hell?!" and pulled my rattling balcony door open and suddenly all these cameras from the local Channel One, or CBS, they all pointed right at me.
I let out an, "Uwah!" and since I was still half asleep, after a moment's deliberation I went to wash my face in the sink, quickly tamed my hair, put on sunglasses and stepped out again.
I stepped out and...and what now? I think that was around the time I was doing my second album, so I debated using this as an opportunity for a promo.
Yet the neighbour really was burning. Though they didn't order any evacuation....
But you know, the building might've been OK on the outside, but the inside was completely gutted.
So yeah, I was super shocked.
I mean, I didn't even think it was a fire at first....
I was convinced that it was, what's his name, Jason from Friday The 13th who'd come, or maybe Leather Face. Brandishing a chainsaw.
Yup. So that happened. It was a pretty dangerous place.