GACKT OFFICIAL BLOG: Sparkling beam explosion【WPT Reception Party】

GACKT Official blog update. Translation below:

This time,
I’ve been invited to the WPT【WORLD POKER TOUR】 held in LA.
Despite that I’ve been visiting LA numerous times since I was 26,
I never knew that this casino hotel existed.
Though my friends did say that this, indeed, isn’t in LA.
It appears that there are a few other casino hotels in this area too.

Today,
I was only invited to appear for the opening party but
at the venue, Day 1A for the main event has already started.
The main event venue has an air of exceptional tension drifting over it.

You’ll be awarded this trophy if you win.
I was surprised that it was such a big trophy.

Upon entering the party venue,
I saw familiar faces all around.
I first spoke to the CEO, Adam, for quite awhile
and his dedication to this time’s tournament is quite strong.
WPT began 15 years ago, and in this tournament
the total prize money has crossed USD1 billion.
This time’s tournament is also in commemoration of that.

Also, the winner of this tournament
will be given the title “1 Blillion Legend of Poker” in commemoration of this,
and will also be given this “1 Billion Smile”,
which is a piece of art that was created for this event.
Anyway, this 1 billion is pretty amazing.

This time, I was also introduced to Mo Fathipour,
the tournament director of The Bicycle Hotel.
I wonder which country he’s from,
he speaks rather strongly accented English and
he’s always mixing in jokes and laughing.
I appears that he’s also the director for a few other tournaments.

I’ve been introduced to interesting people.
When I entered the venue, I thought that there were a lot amazingly handsome young men.
I happened to be at a table nearby so I was introduced to them,
and the left most man is Wes Johnson, an influential cosplayer on both Twitch and YouTube,
while the man next to my is a commentator for WPT, Tony Dunst.
He’s also a famous poker player, and he even got WSOP’s bracelet last year.
I was surprised by how dazzling everyone’s smiles were.
So much so that I wondered if such wonderful smiles capable of generating a sparkling beam.
They’re rather formidable…
I don’t think I can win with my smile…

I seems that the commemorative wine for this event
was also an original wine created from Napa Valley.
And the young entrepreneurs who produced the wine,
along with their designer friend, join in the party too.
The face of this designer is so aged that I couldn’t tell his age but,
his attitude is quite largely funky, and when he told me that he was 24 when I asked about his age,
I instinctively muttered 『Don’t you look too aged…』.
In other words, it’s something that is 【often encountered in America】…

In Japan, and other Asian countries as well,
there are many parties where celebrities are gathered but
in joining an American party, in other words, this one,
I keep getting surprised the tremendously high quality of these smiles.

There was an interesting article that I found and read in the past,
that spoke of how
【America’s economic growth has a close relationship to the level of a smile’s potential】 and
when I see a sight like this, I feel that it’s not completely off the mark.

They don’t really care if you can speak English or not.
There are times when they speak so quickly that I can’t catch it,
however, at such times, I can only cover it with laughter and spirit.
For someone like me, who’s already bad with parties in the first place, having everything happen in another language in addition to this
had me hit with terrible exhaustion in the later half.