When we last left GACKT last week, he was in California to take part in the World Poker Tour's WPT Legends tournament.
A couple of poker news sites posted English interviews with GACKT.
GACKT Aims To Make His Mark on the World Poker Tour - WPT Official Site Pop Music Star Gackt Attempting to Change Poker's Image in Japan - PokerNews
GACKT's first day of playing started with him taking part in a meet and greet before play started. Several personalities from the WPT were present, as was GACKT. One lucky fan was able to get her Mizerable CD signed.
GACKT made it through Day 1C of the tournament. He was one of 150 survivors from a field of 383 entrants on that day, although his stack of 51,300 chips did place him in the lower half of the field.
The tournament finished on Day 5, August 31st, and GACKT was present to watch the final six battle it out at the final table, although he didn't stay until the end to see Art Papazyan win the trophy, $668,692 and a Hublot watch. GACKT was also interviewed, so hopefully that will be shown on the WPT TV shows/YouTube channel at a later date.
TAKUMI posted a couple of videos to his Instagram. He was with Daichi Yokota, another of GACKT's producers, and they were playing some of GACKT's songs.
Again, GACKT updates his blogs a little behind, so it runs a little behind the news section. Also, a couple of blogs this week were Weibo only, and as he only wrote a couple of lines, there isn't much in the way of explanation...
August 28th blog GACKT arrived in California ready for WPT Legends. He trained, and went to a supermarket. He was so amazed by the selection of blueberries that he took photos of them for his blog.
August 29th blog He attended the reception party for the tournament. He was impressed by the power of everyone's smiles, as he always is at a celebrity party in the US. He also said that the combination of rapid fire, native English and his own weakness with socialising at parties left him very tired for the latter half of the party.
August 30th blog GACKT spoke about playing in Day 1C. He said that he was still suffering from jetlag, so he was concerned about his ability to concentrate. After introductions of the famous players, things were due to start. All that was left was some photos, and GACKT found himself dragged over to the middle of the group for the photos. It was a long day, but he managed to increase his stack to 50,000 from the starting 30,000.
August 31st blog He didn't sleep much, and was still jetlagged, but it was time for Day 2. He found himself sat at the same table as a famous player, and spoke about being seated next to another famous player from England during Day 1C, who's mother was from Japan, and GACKT was impressed by his Japanese pronunciation. He lost on Day 2, but learnt some new things and knows he has more to learn. After the tournament, he met his friend Dai, a drift racer, for dinner. They went to an Asian Fusion restaurant that Dai's friend works at.
September 1st blog His jetlag got worse, he trained and then ate.
September 2nd blog Still suffering from jetlag, GACKT wanted to go shopping. His hotel was close to a shopping mall in central Beverly Hills, but for some reason it took over 40 minutes for his car to arrive. He was confused about why it was taking so long, until the driver told GACKT he'd arrived at Beverly Hills Center... and had instead taken him to a hospital in a residential area instead of the mall! After a hour and a half of driving, he got to the mall and found it under renovation. Of course, he headed to Dolce and Gabbana, but didn't find any jackets he liked. During his recent overseas trips, GACKT had noticed how convenient it was to travel with rucksacks, and a couple in D&G jumped out at him so he bought two. The brown one is on their website, yours for only $1,495 After a conversation with an Italian couple in a cafe, GACKT had dinner with director Ryuhei Kitamura.
September 3rd blog GACKT rearranged his luggage and had dinner with some friends for the first time in some time.
It seems that GACKT is coming back to Japan (if he's not back already). How is everyone doing, CAGS? It feels like summer is finally coming to an end here (THANKFULLY) and we're starting to see Halloween goods everywhere.