ItalianoGACKT Official Blog update. Translation below:
Today, I assembled in the hotel lobby with the rest without getting any sleep.
While bringing up points to reflect on from last night,
the level of play and the flow of it came to mind.
Personally, I think that
yesterday’s level of play was good enough to be awarded 90 points.
Even looking back on it, there isn’t really anything that came across as bad.
Even so, since we couldn’t get 1st place,
poker is a really difficult thing.
I arrived at the Beijing airport
and got startled by how big it is once again.
It’s so big that it can’t fit into my camera’s viewfinder.
I wonder if there are airports
in other countries that are this big.
This country is developing at an impressive speed.
But there are lots of issues piled up.
Even when I look up, I can’t see the end of the airport.
The ceiling just keeps going in the other direction.
Even when I go in, i can’t see the end of it.
It looks like it was built well but…
I wonder what it’s really like.
After going through immigration,
『Ahー, as expected…』
I thought, and the usual sight appeared before my eyes.
The queue waiting for the security check
is so long that people were stuck at the area near the immigration gate.
Even the people who are queuing up
don’t even know which line they’re queuing at.
In the end,
it’s disappointing that
there’s no such balance at all.
They made an announcement saying that it might even take
more than an hour to reach the security gate.
If there are this many pasengers,
the airport as a whole isn’t functioning at all
unless they properly make improvements in this area.
Even so,
I ended up laughing at the sheer number of people.
Then
a few of the passengers who were in the queue shouted
『I won’t make it in time for departure!!』
and started arguing with security.
「That’s going to happen anyway…」
I thought,
as we looked at the scene that no one can do anything about,
everyone around me sighed.
Then,
what was even more shocking was, despite such a long snaking queue of people,
the guys going the security check started chatting without working.
『Ah〜h…』
was the only thing that I could say.
That’s just the kind of place this is.
Of course,
I’m not saying that they can’t chat.
It might be their break time but
they’re being far too oblivious to the atmosphere here.
If that’s the case, and they’re having their break,
it would be better if they do that in an area we can’t see.
In the first place, the problem is that despite being right in front
of this snaking queue, nothing is being done to improve the situation.
Only the word vexing comes to mind.
And finally, I got into the plane.
It’s terrible that this time, I arrived at the airport more than 2 hours ahead of time,
and yet I still only got into the plane at the very last minute.
Like this, I think the sales growth
for the shops in the airport would be bad.
This time, during my one day visit to Beijing,
there were a lot of things that really surprised me.
When I looked out of the window in the day,
there were mysterious things floating in the air
making it look like snow was falling.
『Is it snowing?』
I asked the staff,
and they said with a straight face,
that is caused by air pollution…
No no no no,
in the first place that’s just weird.
I called my other friends from China,
『Is this normal?』
I asked them.
『It’s better not to go to Beijing because how severe the environmental pollution is』
they said, as if it’s completely normal.
What’s that supposed to mean?
Are they feeling strange because they’re too used to this?
It’s like
all over the sky, there’s something like snow that’s floating in the air,
and the people who have having tea on the terrace in that…
I can’t understand it at all.
China’s environmental problems
are much more serious that we think.
A memory from the past surfaced.
When I came to China back then,
I spoke to people from the Chinese government
about pirated CDs.
『In the first place, the reason why the music industry isn’t developing
is because of the problem with the present situation of uncontrolled pirated copies!』
I said,
after that, I got shocked by that they said.
『We don’t buy pirated CDs. Because it will hurt the CD player.
It’s the group of people who don’t have money who buy those so…』
No no no no,
that’s not the kind of problem it is.
In the first place, I’ve often seen
lots of pirated CDs of unknown origins
in CD shops as well.
When they tell me things like
“that will damage the CD player so we don’t buy it…”,
it’s the kind of thing that gets refreshed in the back of my mind
and makes me sigh and wonder “are my words not getting through to them…?”.
At present,
pirated CDs have disappeared but
when I go into the department stores, it’s still overflowing with pirated games.
There’s no such thing as rights.
While thinking about these things in the plane,
in the end, I didn’t sleep at all, and arrived in Haneda.
It was only one day but I’m really tired.
The world is large.
There’s still an overwhelming number of things
and problems that we don’t know about in this world.
The world is piled with serious problems.
It’s not a time to read worthless news
and get excited or be happy about it.
I’ll have a good rest today.
I wonder why… That’s how I feel.
There are many things that we’re getting wrong…
Source: GACKT Blog
Translation: GACKT ITALIA Team
Translation © GACKT ITALIA