“Todoka~ nai~ a~ i~ to shi~ ita~ no~ ni~”

Beep…
Yes, hello…
Oh~ it’s you…
Fu~~…

Eh?
“You sound really tired though, what happened?”
… you ask…

I’m tired…
Ah, pretty tired.
The trip this time was really tiring.

Eh?
“You said trip, so where are you now?”
… you ask…

Now huh…
Right now I’m going home from Dubai.
I’m in Dubai’s airport…
I’m really tired… This time.

 

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Eh?
“Why are you in Dubai?”
… you ask…

It’s a long story…
But, I can’t say anything…

Eh?
“I completely don’t understand at all”
… you say…

That’s right…
You wouldn’t get it.
Hm…

This time I’m in Dubai
because I was invited to come by the prince of Dubai…

Eh?
“Why did he invite you over??”
… you ask………

Well,
because there was a party
and he asked me to attend it.
But, I can’t say anything more than this.
Really…
In terms of the details
it’s a top secret…

Eh?
“Top secret makes it sound like a movie”
… you say…

Right…
I was honestly overwhelmed.
Things that you expect to only see in movies are happening in real
life… like that.
That’s why my fatigue hit me like a train.

Eh?
“If that’s the case then talk about what you can say”
… you say…

What I can say huh…
Until I went to the Prince’s party,
I had about 2 days so I was wandering around the city
and did a bunch of stuff.

So,
the Prince noticed,
and said to tell him what I wanted to do,
or anything I liked to do while in Dubai…

Then,
I said… I wanted to ride a car when I’m in Dubai,
just as I said it
he bought a race circuit…

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Eh?
“I don’t understand what you’re saying”
… you say…

No, well, as expected, I too
would be thinking
“What’s with that expansion???” right?
Halfway I started to get a strange feeling about it.

So,
while I headed to the circuit
he bought everything
in the circuit for me.
A huge number of staff
were serving me.

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For example right.
You will gather a friends to buy a circuit
that’s the usual way right?

Eh?
“We don’t do things like that…”
… you say…

Well I do that!
But anyway,
to buy a circuit just for me…
It makes you go “hey hey hey whaaaat!?” right?

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Eh?
“So, you ran the circuit with a car?”
… you ask…

Of course, I did.
Just because of me
all the staff in the circuit were on standby
I definitely can’t say
“No thanks I’m not driving…” right?

For some reason,
I thought I’d take a short course about the circuit…
Like where are the pylons,
if you don’t reduce your speed to 80km in this corner you’ll crash,
how fast I can go on this straight road…
I received such a crash course.

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Eh?
“You drive so seriously?”
… you ask…

Well,
I wasn’t thinking of that initially though.
Somehow it became such a thing…
Completely oblivious to others, TAKUMI became really got into it.

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I heard somewhere
that the Prince knew that
I really liked cars,
that’s roughly how this happened.

The car they let me use, too,
was fully tuned up for the race track.

Then,
there were professional racers on standby too,
and they said that they would
do a test drive and show me first…

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Eh?
“Test drive? What’s that??”
… you ask…

In other words.
If I went out on the course immediately,
I wouldn’t know anything about it right?
That’s why, first I have to ride with the driver
and listen to him explain it.

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Eh?
“Is that normal?”
… you ask…

That’s what I said right!
Its an exhibit you wouldn’t have thought of!

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I have no choice but to do it right?
The other guy’s serious too anyway.
While driving,
the professional racer kept going

「Step on the accelerator more!!!」
「Wait longer before you make your move!!!」

Since he kept yelling like that
I have no choice but to do it right??

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Eh?
“That’s pretty fun though…”
… you say…

Completely not fun at all.

We drove for quite a while.
That was tiring…
Well, it’s been awhile since I last drove seriously, that’s why.

It’s rare
that I drive seriously in the circuit.
Halfway through,
I wondered many times
“Eh?? What on earth am I doing?”…

But,
these guys go round and round until they can do it well right?
Until they can fully utilize the accelerator
and make all the right moves at the right time.

 

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At the end after all of us have managed to drive well,
he said
“Al~right, let’s end here today!”…
Hey hey, are you a coach!!
It sounds like that right?

Eh?
“There’s too much to read about this”
… you say…

I know.
That’s why, if I start talking excessively
I know that it will start to get troublesome later.

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After this race circuit
they told us where we could have a meal. And we decided
to go to the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, to eat.

Eh?
“I’ve heard of that!”
… you say…

Well, that’s because it’s a famous building.
It’s so scarily high,
that even though I wanted to take photos
when looking through the view finder I couldn’t do it at all.

 

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I got directions and was walking inside but,
because it was right after that
my fatigue hit me like a wave. While eating,
I almost fell asleep a number of times.

 

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Despite that,
I wanted to see the night scenery.
This country is pretty terrifying… kind of.
Exactly how many floors did I go up…
I can’t remember at all.
Because on the way we had to transit around a number of times.
The floor numbers became weird.

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The picture I took from the top of the building
looked so much like an aerial photo that I laughed.
It’s exactly the same as the pictures I take
from the sky when I’m arriving at the airport. After that I went back
to my room and slept a lot.
Although it wasn’t that late,
I guess I was really tired…

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I woke up in the middle of the night,
went to the veranda of the hotel
and took a breather.

As it was around 4 in the morning
I figured that it would be expected of the shops to all be closed so,
from the beach outside
I listened to the nice music from the sea.

While doing that
day broke.

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On that day I thought of spending it at my own pace.
I think I went training since morning… In any case, unexpectedly
my pace was messed up by that exhibition so,
I ended up training for around 4 hours.

Eh?
“Where did you do your training?”
… you ask…

Within the hotel.
But you know… I was surprised there too.
Honestly until now,
I’ve never seen a hotel’s gym
that is this well equipped.

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Thou shalt fear Dubai… that’s what it is.

Can you normally imagine it?
Like the rough size of it,
it’s floor space,
what kind of equipment they will have…

All of it exceeds expectations.

 

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In other words,
I wanted to return to my own pace
and trained together with my staff. We gave our all for a substantial
amount of time
so my body was aching.

 

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Eh?
“From there you met the Prince?”
… you ask…

We met…
I can’t say anything about that…

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Just that, I kept getting surprised by various things all the way…

While I was being brought over,

when I asked

『Where exactly are we going?』,
I was told that we’re already in the royal family’s lands…
It’s like, how far does this go!!

All the way,
we kept driving along a road that had the same scenery.
The scale of it was far too big
I can understand why but this just takes too much time…

Eh?
“So, what kind person is the Prince?”
… you ask…

I can’t say in detail but.
One thing I can say is,
in all my life
I’ve never met someone else who is has as much people skills as him…
That’s all I can say.

He’s about 10 years younger than me.
Despite that he’s overflowing with poeple skills.
There’s really no other way to describe him other than amazing.

This is the first time since I was born
that I’ve ever been so moved by one person.

Something like… a person you really want to be led by,
despite that I’ve never thought like that before until now.
It’s the first time I thought of it.

I believe his personal assets exceed 1 trillion.
You rarely ever meet someone like that right?
Even for company assets,
for personal assets to be worth that much is just shocking…

Being blown away by anything and everything
you understand that it will take time to grasp this right?

I can’t tell you about the contents but,
it became a really valuable experience for me.

While he gave me a hug at the end
what he said made me feel happy.

『GACKT you’re my close friend so
whenever you’re in Dubai
let me know what you want to do』

was what he said.
They were casual words but,
I was really happy.

Eh?
“So, after that you spent your time without incident??”
… you ask…

You could say that but…
the next day,
my retainer asked me again.

『GACKT, what do you want to do?』

Without thinking, I said

『Drive』

and replied with that.
I wasn’t thinking of anything.
After I realised what I said,

『Ah〜〜〜〜〜〜!!!!』

I thought.
Again, I said something too much.

With that,
after sometime that guy came calling to me.
The Prince will let me use his car.

I’ve been revealed…

 

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Parked outside was a Bugatti Veyron
and a Lamborghini Aventador.
He said I can take it out for a ride around…
That really made me feel happy. Since he went through the trouble
I took drive through Dubai.

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Because I’ve never driven a Bugatti before,
I was happy~.
The interior was beautiful,
its a car that can only be referred to as a drivable gem. In any case,
the city is beautiful.
The roads were pretty developed,
and easy to drive on.

 

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Eh?
“So, where did you go?”
… you ask…

For awhile,
I went around in the city
and went to some hotel.

 

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Although we’re inside the hotel
there was an incredible aquarium.
What’s up with this… that’s what I thought. The scale is too different.
Being blown away by anything and everything
again and again I thought, “They did that!?”

 

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According to the impression that we have,
because Dubai is an oil-producing country
they can do things like that! Right?

In truth, that’s not it.
In Dubai,
there’s almost no oil left.
In 1970, it seems that they have exhausted their oil resources.

With that,
the King of Dubai
wanted to develop the country
in other words make it the world’s best city! So
they began all kinds of city construction.

That’s why,
all the buildings and their contents are the world’s best.
The buildings are like that.
Even the city’s quality as well.

In other words,
it’s not possible to not be surprised.

This is significant… is something I kept saying.
Comparing with here, Japan
is pretty much like a sitting duck.

There are really lots of things
that we have to do.
You get it?

Eh?
“Aren’t you leaving the plane yet?”
… you ask…

Hey you, are you listening to what I said?
Forget it.
I’m landing right now.
I have to put down the phone soon.

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Well, until next time.
If I go back to Japan I’ll contact you.
Just awhile more until I come back to Japan.
Probably… Bye.

GACKT

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Source: OH!! MY!! GACKT!!

Translation: GACKT ITALIA Team

© GACKT ITALIA