GACKT Official blog update. Translation below:

I stayed up until morning came.
I have to head over to Japan for a shoot and
I thought that I wouldn’t be able to wake up in the morning so I stayed up until then.

At 6:30 a.m., I left home and headed to the airport.
The airport was already filled with more people than I imagined.
I wonder where’s everyone going this early…

As my partner is taking care of the tickets,
I could simply wait.
I’m thankful for it.
Usually, only the passengers can go into the Philippines’ airport.
Normally, even if you’re sending someone off, you can only send them to the entrance,
but my local partner had deep connections with the airport officials,
so he could freely hang around inside the airport.
You need ties between people for things like these too.
One of the things that started new work for me here
also came from this connection.
I really always feel that fate and ties are important things.

We talked about work in the airport’s lounge until it was departure time.
It’s a matter of just how much I enjoy work though,
the things that pop up in my head quickly turn into words and get executed.
This is important too.

Thinking too much and not making a move is a much bigger waste of time.
If you move, multiple ideas will pop up after that.
Problems can be fixed while you’re moving.

I had to take a domestic flight to get to Manilla, and I was surprised
by how much the quality of Philippines Air’s plane has improved.
I suppose it’s a new aircraft.
Since the last time, I had the image of old planes that are uncomfortable to ride in but
it’s become something that has a rather good feel.

This is also one of the changes that came about after President Duterte.
In the past, the Philippines had the strong image of having nothing but bad security but
since he came into office as president the country has rapidly changed.

Those who say that his various methods are against human rights and so on
are foreign officials who don’t know the actual situation in this country,
and are barking up the wrong tree and sticking their noses in other countries’ businesses in the first place.

The problems in a country should be solved by the hands of those living there,
and interventions by other countries that have different cultures, religions, histories, ways of thinking, and mannerisms,
will trigger big conflicts later.
Disputes that turn into wars are also often triggered by interventions by bigger countries.

Even if a quick solution is not possible,
the most important thing is for them to solve it themselves even if it takes time,
and I think that it’s wrong for big countries to wave their egos around and interfere with other countries’ circumstances but…
Th countries around them need to watch attentively and wait and see too,
but the current situation is that there are too many large powers who want quick answers.

Inside Manilla’s airport, one example of what changed a lot is the atmosphere.
It’s a lucky thing to be able to see such a change.
Maybe it’s because I’ve had high hopes for the city and the people to have big changes in a good way,
but the overall vibrancy of the country has increased, and it’s become something powerful and attractive.

For the people and the country to be this strongly influenced by just one president
is something that is rarely seen in recent years.

With Trump,
with France’s Macron, the world’s youngest president,
we may have been thrust into an era when the world seeks new leaders.

Upon arriving in Manilla Airport, I went to the lounge and worked.
Although I had quite a lot of waiting time,
I was interacting with work friends in various countries at the same time.
The time went by in the blink of an eye.

I work wherever I go.
It’s now possible to work in any country.
Well, though everything that I do are all instructions and confirmations.

Times indeed have changed.
Be it good or bad, it’s at an exceptionally fast speed.
We have to think about how we can lead this era in the right direction,
and what we ourselves need to do.
We have to learn the knowledge from our past experiences and understand much from there,
and bridge it the to future.
Of course, it’s not simple though.

Alright,
it’s time and I had to head to the boarding gate but
even though it’s boarding time, we still can’t go into the plane.
I wondered if I should head back to the lounge but
I decided to sit and wait near the gate.



Even so,
I suppose the only airport in the world where birds
are naturally flying around inside the airport is here in Manilla airport.
Birds are flying around in the hall as if it’s normal.
I have no idea where they came in from but no one seems bothered.

I think Manilla’s airport
will be growing bigger from here on,
and if they plan to make it a hub, they might need to build a separate international airport.
This terminal is always crowded and has a lot of delays.
But they can’t increase the number of runways either.

I wonder how the president is going to solve this problem.
I think he’ll definitely do something out of anyone’s imagination.
Not that I care if he has the idea of moving the capital.

The plane back to Japan was a new one too.
The ride has become quite good.
Comfortable.

Maybe it’s because I stayed up all night,
but when I woke up, we already arrived in Narita.
It’s as if I warped here.

My staff made a reservation at a shop.
While having Japan’s Kushikatsu for the first time in awhile,
he listened about all the interesting stories from my world trip in the past month.
Though I think it’ll take quite some time to talk about everything.
I wonder what time can we leave…

Source: GACKT Blog

Translation: GACKT ITALIA Team

Translation © GACKT ITALIA