Footnotes

1 sung as machi, "town" (spelled 町), but written with the word for "city", tokai, on the lyrics sheet. Machi is very, very commonly used in everyday Japanese language to refer to anything from a large town to a literal city, so the kanji appears to be used to impress that they're referring specifically to a city in this song (Tokyo, naturally). ▲

2 sung as uso, "lie" (spelled 嘘), but written with the word for "phony, imitation, bogus", nisekoto, on the lyrics sheet. This may be giving a little heft to the lies that are spoken -- they're not just harmless little white lies, they're heavy and damaging falsehoods (hence my translation). ▲

3 sung as maboroshi, "phantom, vision, dream", but written with the word for "hallucination, illusion", genkaku. Skewing the meaning towards something being a vision, but not necessarily a healthy or benign one. ▲

4 sung as toki, "time (itself)", but written with the word for "(this/a moment in) time", jikan. Similar, but not the same -- it's a fiendishly tricky thing to explain without going into absolute linguistic nitpicking. Just go with the explanation that toki is the somewhat more poetic or literary form of the word. ▲

5 sung as yoru, "night", but written with the word for "late night", shin'ya. Specifying precisely when, because, let's face it, we all know that 7pm and 3am are not the same thing :P ▲

6 sung as arawarete, "to appear, to come into view" (spelled 現れて), but written with the kanji for "existence", sonzai. I say "kanji" here and not "word" because there's no such word as sonzairete; sonzai is a noun while aware(te) is a verb. It gives the meaning of appearing by coming into existence itself. ▲

7 sung as kinou, "yesterday", but written with the word for "the past", kako. Implying "yesterday" as more of a concept than the literal "day before today". ▲

8 sung as tadashii, "right, just, straightforward, correct", but written with the kanji for "just, right, due", seitou (again, kanji, as seitoushii is not a word). The later has a slightly more legal feel, while the former is more of a moral term. I went with "proper" as it kind of covers both concepts, in a way. ▲

9 sung as matsu, "to wait", but written with the word for "expectation, anticipation", kitai. The former is a verb and the latter is usually considered a noun; it gives an image of waiting expectantly, or waiting for something that will happen. ▲

10 sung as tsumi, "sin, crime", but written with the word for "crime" explicitly, hanzai. I went with "evil" as the translation to differentiate it from both conceptual sin and actual crime, which is what I think the kanji may be inferring -- YMMV. ▲

11 sung as kowarete, "broken", but written with the kanji for "destruction", hakai. I went with "shattered" as a happy medium between the two -- it's more evocative than "broken", but less dramatic than "destroyed". ▲

12 sung as ashita, "tomorrow", but written with the word for "the future", mirai. Implying "tomorrow" as a less literal time concept again, as with the previous note. ▲

13 sung as sagashiteru, "to search (for)", but written with the kanji for "quest, pursuit", tankyuu. I went with "seeking" to combine both meanings. ▲

14 sung as nukedasenai, esentially "inescapable" (though more literally "un-sneak-away-able" or "un-slip-away-able"...and now you know why any translator worth their salt eschews literal translation), but the "slip away" part of the word is written with the kanji for "escape", dasshutsu -- it would usually be spelled 抜け出せない. Essentially affirming the concept of literally escaping something, not merely sidestepping it. ▲

15 sung as mune, literally "chest" and more poetically "heart", but written with the word for "one's heart, one's mind, one's intentions", kyouchuu. Obviously I went the poetic route here. ▲

16 sung as kokoro, "heart, mind", but written with the word for "emotions", kanjou. Nudging us towards the "heart" interpretation a little more. ▲

17 sung as sutete, "throw away, cast aside", but written with the kanji for "annulment, disposal, discarding", haiki. Hammering home the thrown away interpretation. ▲

18 sung as samenai, "unawakening" or "unsobering" (usually spelt 覚めない), but written with the kanji for "awakening", kakusei, making the "unawakening" meaning the key mover here. ▲

19 sung as mogaku, "struggling, squirming" or "being impatient" (usually spelt 藻掻く), but written with the kanji for "conflict, discord, troubles", kattou, giving the overall meaning of "a struggle" (as a noun, not a verb). ▲

20 sung as itsumo, "always, usually, every time", but written with the kanji for "everyday life", nichijou. Not only is this always, it's an everyday sort of always. ▲

21 sung as michi, "road, path, way", but written with the word for "signpost", michishirube (which, yes, contains the word michi within it). YMMV, but I see this as pointing out that the road itself is the signpost, which might indicate that there's only one destination at the end of this particular road, and that the speaker knows precisely what it is. ▲

22 sung as owaru, "ending, finishing", but written with the kanji for "an end, a close, final chapter", shuumatsu. Possibly indicating that this is a physical and figurative ending as well as an action of ending something. ▲

23 sung as yami, "dark, shady, illegal", but written with the kanji for "darkness, the dark", kurayami. Indicating that we're talking about actual darkness here, not just shade. ▲

24 sung as abunai, "dangerous" (or "Watch out!" when used as an expression -- good to yell if someone's beneath a falling section of the Rainbow Bridge, for example), but written with the kanji for "danger, risk, peril, hazard", kiken. Basically, danger with its boots on. ▲

!! not a real note, but I just have to put this down here -- this is the most footnotes I've EVER done for a song translation. Ookawa-sensei, you destroy me T.T ▲