ItalianoGACKT Official Blog update. Translation below:
Without getting much sleep,
I prepared to go out.
In between, I did push ups here and there
and with that, today’s training is done.
I slept for 2 hours.
Between these 2 days
I’ve spent over 30 hours flying in planes.
I began to think that it’s not bad
to spend time in the plane today.
I’ll be able to focus and think about lots of things.
I was able to summarise a variety of new business ideas,
and arrange songs, and write song lyrics
because I was able to focus.
KL’s airport
doesn’t have a shred of the tension
that Japan’s media is reporting about.
It’s, as usual, peaceful.
It’s common for the media to exaggerate
and write about things that aren’t happening as something interesting.
Because if they don’t do that
there wouldn’t be news.
Of course, it’s not like that for everything.
However, they often deviate from the actual circumstances.
There are lots of tourists in the airport
and there was quite a long queue at the immigration counter too.
I quickly made it through the VIP immigration counter and headed into the plane.
I went to the boarding area without time to even buy souvenirs but
it was suddenly changed and the new boarding area was at the other end.
I had to walk from one end to the other.
I barely made it in time to board.
I was the last passenger.
We departed from Kuala Lumpur’s airport.
The scenery below has become something I’m used to looking at.
This time, in the plane,
I was reminded of the disaster in 2011.
During that period of time as well,
for a month right after the disaster,
I didn’t get much sleep
and worked together with friends from different regions to scrape together
water, clothes, towels, food, batteries, tissues, fuel…
each and every kind of necessity,
and then worked on stuffing trucks with them
and looked for even more necessities,
repeating that over and over.
Simply because there are people waiting for us due to the disaster,
everyone was working at the same time during that time.
No one uttered a single word of complaint.
I remember opinions being completely divided in the office.
If half of the executives were doing volunteer work which stood out
like gathering those relief supplies and delivering them
to the disaster sites,
they would say, “We’ll be unnecessarily beaten up by various media outlets!”.
They even said
“Simply just delivering it is enough!
Other talents and artistes are doing that too”
to that extent.
I directly opposed that opinion.
Indeed, with a certain kind of reasoning,
that may be correct.
A few months after the volunteer activities were held
a portion of heartless media outlets were saying
unfounded things like
“GACKT exploits donation funds!”,
saying that it was hypocrisy and such.
However,
half of the people in the company back then
stood with my opinion.
“As a Japanese, like them,
let’s do what we can.
There are people in trouble in the disaster sites who are waiting.”
Because of that,
the office was completely split in two
and in the end, it also became the thing that
sparked my decision to later leave that office.
Right after that disaster,
even arranging for a truck to deliver the goods
didn’t go through like we expected.
Because we weren’t able to grasp situation in the disaster areas,
rumors of radioactive contamination were circulating
and so we were rejected by delivery companies everywere,
becoming unable to send trucks to the disaster sites.
In the end
friends who had the large trucks
that I normally used for my lives
readily helped me.
“Let’s do this”
How much that one simple phrase saved my spirit.
My friends delivered the goods to the disaster sites
and reported the current situation to me.
In many of the photos that they took
there were bodies that were still being left alone on the roads.
When I called out to the entire country for donations
many friends joined in as volunteers.
I really want to thank them from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you.
“What Waka (young master)
did at that time was not wrong”
What that partner said to me
still saves me to this day.
I can see the cityscape of Manila.
It’s also because I’m still alive that I’m able to be moved by this night scene.
Many people were hurt by that disaster.
I sincerely hope that they were able to heal even just a little from the hurt in their hearts.
Let’s pray.
And, never forget.
What happened back then.
It’s still not all over yet.
Source: GACKT Blog
Translation: GACKT ITALIA Team
Translation © GACKT ITALIA