Mr. Hyde is waiting to be interviewed in the chicly decrepit confines of Casa del Japon, a Western-style house in Azabu that was the residence of China's ambassador to Japan before World War II and is now a bar and restaurant.
He is sitting on a somewhat ratty sofa in a room that looks like a set for "The Addams Family": garish but faded wallpaper, antique light fixtures and windows that have been painted black.
Unlike the swarthy sensualist of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale, this Mr. Hyde is a pale, diminutive chap with dyed-blonde hair -- decidedly nonthreatening. He is, in fact, the lead singer of mega-popular rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel and has recently released a solo album titled "Roentgen."
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