TRANSLATION OFFICIAL BLOG - July 20th 2015

DEAR MY G-LOVERS

My voice can be heard
on GACKT Blomaga so,
those who want to read it all, check out the Blomaga

※This article is an excerpt from the
“GACKT’s Trashy Stories” corner in the Blomaga.

【Delivered thrice a month】
http://ch.nicovideo.jp/channel/gackt

“Kodoku〜ni〜obi〜e〜namida〜naga〜･･･♪♫“ (EVER)

Beep…
Hello~

Hello??

Oh, it’s you.
My reception is kinda bad.

Eh?
“Your reception is bad, so where are you now?”
… you ask…

Now, I’m moving at high speeds.
I’m approaching an airport.
I’ll touch down soon.

Eh?
“You’re overseas again?”
… you ask…

Nope, it’s the other way around.
I’m returning to Japan now.
It’s a somersault but,
I went to Hong Kong for work.

Eh?
“After your birthday ended
you went back overseas?”
… you ask…

Around the time of my birthday my schedule
for overseas and Japan really got jumbled up.
If I can’t arrange my schedule well,
it’s quite common that day trips will occur.

This time I managed an overnight stopover so,
it was good though.
So, now I’ve managed to finish work and am heading towards the airport.

Because tonight I’m having dinner in Hakone.
I wonder if I’m able to make it in time.

Eh?
“I’m jealous you get to have dinner in Hakone…”
… you say…

Hey look here,
this isn’t for leisure.
It’s fine if I could take my time in Hakone but,
after that,
I soon have to get back to Tokyo for work again.

Furthermore,
now, the rain is quite heavy thanks to the typhoon right?
I heard that the place is in the mountains, so I really wonder if I can get there…

Well, unless I try going I won’t know.
I heard that a number of routes,
have been closed off…
Even if I dwell on I can’t do anything about it so
in any case I just have to try getting there…
Ahahaha.

Eh?
“Do you always
proceed in this manner??”
… you ask……

Well you see,
if you started messing your head up with thoughts before making a move
you won’t get anywhere right?
As long as you make a move, no matter how small, an answer will appear.
Receiving that answer,
and figuring out how to deal with the existing situation
is definitely more important.

To have a sturdy plan,
and to overthink before making any moves,
are completely different from one another.

In other words, the plan is what’s important.
But, you know,
more often than not you’re probably thinking about this and that
without progress and not getting answers right?
In your daily life, in your work life,
in your love life.

That’s exactly what it is.
By thinking about that too much in your head
you’ll end up growing old without making any progress.

I call that
“uncool”.
You get it?

Before thinking about this or that, in other words just move it.
If you do that,
you’ll increase the speed that you can get guided to results than others.
More than anything else, that is the first step.

Anyway,
this airport is really big.
if move around at walking speed
without doing anything in this airport,
I can easily spend an hour here.

Its a really awesome kind of big.
Maybe it’s big because it’s a hub airport.
If Okinawa becomes a hub airport of this scale
we could probably promote and activate our economy though.

For example,
now, if we expand Okinawa’s Special Economic Zone (SEZ),
the taxes that will be collected from the whole of Okinawa’s SEZ
will be favourable too.
Okinawa is filled with various issues.
Yet, it remains that they’re not cleared up.

The government disburses large amounts of grants annually.
That being the case, through the SEZ
it can be collected from the businesses
and by doing that Okinawa’s own economy can be turned.
The labor problem,
and even the employment problem would probably get cleared.

Well, with the existing vested interests,
the people who are clinging onto concessions
will probably violent protest against that.

If you get bothered by such things
nothing will change.
I would like to have such reforms.

Eh?
“Have you not gone back to Okinawa recently?”
… you ask…

I haven’t been back…
Though I should go back once and clean the graves.
The timing doesn’t fit at all.
I think I’ll go back with the staff around autumn.
If I had about 5 days,
I believe I can finish the cleaning without incident.

Eh?
“Even though it’s just clearing the graves
will it really take day after day??”
… you ask…

That… it does.
Because it’s incredibly big.
This isn’t just the graves
but the ”gods altars(kamiya)” too
have to be cleaned together.

And that place is far…
To get there will take quite a lot of time.
If I don’t have a few days for that I won’t be able to finish it.

Of course,
it’s so big that it’s utterly impossible on your own.
Normally,
I’ll call along 10 to 20 staff members and friends
and start with a signal.
If I do that, we can finish in about 4-5 hours.

Well, it’s tough.
It becomes a big event of mine.

Eh?
“Anyway, it’s warm in Hong Kong right?”
… you ask…

Hey you, you skip topics too much?

Yeah,
the answer to that question is complicated.
In the day it’s hot.
If you’re talking about outdoors.
When you enter the buildings its like cold room used by an idiot
it’s too cold.
If you stay in such a cold building
you’ll definitely damage your body.

Though I think that anyone can easily understand that.
It’s a really unnatural cold.
Because it’s an unthinkable kind of cold
I basically don’t want to enter or stay long
in hotels or malls.

There are times when I’m walking outside with short sleeves but,
the UV rays are strong so I often am in long sleeves outside too.

Inside Hong Kong’s buildings,
I dress like its autumn in Japan.
It is really cold to that extent.

There are many people wandering around in short sleeves but,
that’s definitely bad for your body.
Amongst them,
there are many who say that its hot but,
if it’s up to me to it say, they’re just too fat.
If they slimmed down a little it would be fine.

Eh?
“Is all travel done via car?”
… you ask…

There are times when we travel by car but,
most of the time its faster if we walked.
The traffic congestion is really terrible.

Because when you board the car,
more often than not you can’t tell when you will reach your destination.
Anyway I prefer to walk so,
I often travel around on foot.

Just that,
the city of Hong Kong isn’t made for walking.
Firstly, the streets are really dirty.
I can forgive presence of the masses of people but,
I really wonder about why the streets are dirty.
It can’t be helped that there are many old buildings but,
I wonder about
the drops of water dripping down onto my head from
the outdoor units carelessly stuck to the walls.

Eh?
“Do Hong Kongers have poor awareness?”
… you ask…

Hm…
Generally I can’t say that’s the case.
Yesterday, I smoked a cigar outdoors.
There are many bins with those ash trays on top right?

I was smoking next to that.
And right in front of me it was crowded with people passing.
Hong Kong even has bins in such a location in the city.
So, anyway I noticed something but,
no matter how quickly they were walking,
even the people who were smoking while rushing by,
will definitely as far as possible throw their cigarettes into the bin.

I was honestly surprised by that.
I thought that most Hong Kongers had low awareness
and would casually litter around the city.

Even though it should be considered as common sense
there are really a lot of people who do that.
Of course,
the streets are still littered with cigarette butts.
This too, honestly, undermined my impression of the city,
and this is absolutely bad in terms of hygiene.

But,
with that it seems that many people are aware,
and that made me feel glad.

In olden Japan,
whether or not there were ashtrays in the streets,
most people threw their litter wherever they liked.

In the city,
it used to be covered in cigarette butts.
At the time when I started smoking too,
it was really normal to think that it was okay
to throw your cigarettes wherever you liked on the roads.

Back then it was really terrible.
Thinking about it now
it’s really strange to say that
everyone thought that it was correct.
But, that was considered normal.
It was a very commonplace action.

The guys who smoke in Japan now,
I don’t know what kind of mindset they have but
even just a little
if they could be come like the Hong Kongers
that would be good.

Well, the reason why littering of cigarettes went down
is because if you do that in Hong Kong
you’ll get fined.
It’s pretty steep.

However,
in olden Japan the same law was established.
If you ask me whether everyone really stopped littering
I think there’s still room for doubt…

The olden Japan was pretty severe.
Well, in these 20 years its because of that
that we’ve grown.

In the end, this too is education I guess…
Because the law restricts certain things
it’s not that we already think that we shouldn’t do these things,
but its that they have to teach us through education.
Why is that needed,
why can’t we do these things…

Simply, with their confident assertion that it’s not allowed
even if your brain understood it
there are probably still many times when your actions don’t match up I guess.

I hope that educational institutes
would work harder on things like that too.

Eh?
“Are you working all night too??”
… you ask…

I’m definitely going for dinner at night.
After that dinner ends,
I’ll be going for a reunion drink with my friends from Hong Kong for the first time in awhile.

Eh?
“Do you have many friends from Hong Kong?”
… you ask…

Quite a lot.
Hong Kong’s entertainment industry relations, property.
There are even a quite a few friends with financial relations.

This time I met the friends in finance for the first time in awhile,
we spoke about various things for about 2 hours.
Because the scenery from this hotel was beautiful
we watched the scenery while drinking for awhile.
In the end I was completely knocked out though…