By: crescent_yume

In August 2007, I travelled to Tokyo, Japan to visit my friend Saori. Travelling with me was my friend Sara, who was travelling to Japan for the first time, while this trip was my second. The trip was great, as my trip the year before had been, but I felt a little upset that I wouldn’t, for the second year in a row, be able to see Gackt.

On August 11th, we visited a shrine, and I made a wish to see Gackt, in the exact same place that I had made the same wish a year prior. The only difference was that this time, I threw in a ten yen coin versus a one yen coin. Yep, I really stepped it up a notch. ^^;;

After spending some time at the shrine, we went over to Saori’s dad’s work so that I could e-mail my parents and some friends. While there, of course, I checked the Gackt updates to see if Gackt was going to be doing anything, and was shocked to find that he was going to be on Waratte Iitomo on August 13th, my last day in Tokyo. With a huge smile on my face, I turned to Saori and said, “Yay, we can watch him on TV!” Saori looked at the article and the schedule, and she turned to me with a wider smile and said, “Better yet, let’s go to the studio! It’s in Shinjuku!”

I was too excited for words. But Saori warned me not to get my hopes up too high, but I told her that just being outside of the building that Gackt was in was enough for me. (Hmm… sounds a little stalker-ish, huh?)

We went about our lives then, and finally, the 13th arrived. We hadn’t told Sara what we were doing until the night before, since she isn’t a Gackt fan, and we were afraid that she’d be opposed to the idea. Instead, she just shrugged and was like “whatever.” So we woke up at about nine o’clock in the morning (which was early for us sleepy heads!), stopped at McDonald’s (yes, we’re all Americans at heart…), and then made out way to Studio Alta in Shinjuku.

I rode in the back of the car in silence, my mind rather blank. I was battling with myself to not get my hopes up too high, since Saori had urged me over and over not to think too much about it. She didn’t want me to be disappointed, after all.

Just as I was about to ask how much further we had until we reached the studio, I looked out the window, and was actually shocked to see two large, African American men standing on the corner. I knew immediately that they were Gackt’s bodyguards. At this moment, Saori turned to me to say something, but I already knew what she was going to say: we had reached our destination.

We literally stumbled out of the car, and walked dazedly onto the sidewalk in front of the studio. The studio itself sits on the corner of a very wide and decorated street. There is a mall-like area kitty-corner to the studio, and the studio itself sits up off the street. The words Alta Studio run down the building in bright colors. There was a barricade set up inside the building and I saw a few people who must have had tickets to the show go up to the security guards. I have to admit, I was quite jealous of the people who actually got to go into the studio.

As Saori, Sara, and I stood there, still dazed, and probably sticking out just as much as the bodyguards (Sara and I are both very Caucasian, and Sara stands at just 4’9 and has very blonde hair), a limo suddenly pulled up to the curve, and out stepped Tamori, the host of the show. I recognized him instantly from the many times I had seen Music Station, and Saori and I watched him with open mouths as he made his way quickly to the barricaded area.

Saori turned to me, with her eyes wide, and said, “Do you know who that was?” I answered that yes, I did, and we had to quickly explain to Sara who he was. Saori placed her hand over her heart and looked completely in heaven over seeing Tamori. It was a pretty big deal to her. ^^

We ended up walking toward the bodyguards, and Saori tried to get me to go talk to them, saying that it was the only time I’d ever get the chance to talk to Gackt’s bodyguards. Truthfully though, I was growing more and more dazed by the second, and I didn’t want to do something that would look/be foolish or stupid, and more than anything, I didn’t want to bother Gackt, or anybody related to Gackt.

Eventually, we moved over toward a group of older women, who I noticed were wearing onyx bracelets, which, obviously signified that they were Gackt women. As the morning went on, my heart began to beat faster and faster and the Tokyo air grew hotter and hotter. Just as we were attempting to center ourselves to get the best possible view of Gackt, despite the fact that we had no idea where he was going to come from, we suddenly noticed that his bodyguards were moving down the street. I turned to watch them, only to notice how many people had arrived. We were surrounded by people.

A black SUV pulled up then, with very, very dark tinted windows and the words “Chevrolet” written on the back in very decorative letters. Security guards from the studio came then, and arranged us all to form a walkway for Gackt to go down. The door to the SUV opened then, and everybody started to scream, myself included. I immediately stopped though, and was like “Whoa, what am I doing?” ^^;;

It actually took Gackt quite a long time to come out of his car. Eventually the screams intensified, and I leaned over so that I could look down the walkway. Two of the studio security guards led, followed by a man who had a bag with Gackt’s Kenshin Festival poster and Drug Party DVD in it, and right behind that man was Gackt, with his two bodyguards at his sides.

The bodyguards weren’t doing a very good job at protecting Gackt though, because the first thing I noticed (after noticing Gackt, or course!) were hands going across Gackt. It was like he was walking through hands after hands after hands. His jacket was pulled down all the way off of his shoulders. Saori and Sara mentioned later that they didn’t even know he had a jacket on, since it was so far down his shoulders. I was shocked at how people were touching him, so I vowed not to touch him, despite the fact that I was going to be very close to him.

Gackt looked down as he walked, and his eyes were hidden by the large pair of sunglasses that he’s been wearing since the beginning of 2006. For the most part, he reminded me of how he’d looked at the S.K.I.N. show in the U.S., which made me rather happy, being that I had been unable to see him when he performed in the U.S.

As he neared me, the first thing I remember thinking was that his pores are actually quite large. (XD;;) I could see the line where his makeup started. Even so, it’s not like he looked bad or anything. He looked quite the opposite, actually.

He stopped momentarily in front of me, and shot an annoyed look away from me, as if the girl on the other side had done something. I was sad that he wasn’t looking at me, so I found myself saying “Gakuto…” as if hoping that would catch his attention. It didn’t, though, and he continued on, his bodyguards moving closer to him to cut down on the amounts of people touching him. Then, just like that, he disappeared.

Saori and Sara rushed forward, to try to see where he had disappeared to, but I stood there, completely dumbfounded. I felt a few tears trickle down my face for reasons unknown to me. Saori noticed this, and was like “are you crying?” ^^;;

Sara was extremely excited. “Oh my gosh, his hair looked good. He should style it like that forever! Shoot! I forgot to look at his shoes! I wanted to see what kind of shoes he wore! I have to say though, he looked just like he does in magazines, which is really impressive!” For not being a Gackt fan at all, Sara was surprisingly excited!

We walked up toward the studio then, and I realized that Gackt had seriously left a trail of Platinum Egoiste behind. I exclaimed that you could smell him out loud, just as a group of three women who had to have been in their forties came up and started cooing loudly over Gackt. I asked where Gackt had gone, and Saori pointed to an elevator, and said, “Should we try to ride in the same elevator as Gackt?” I didn’t hear her at first, or I definitely would have taken that offer. XD

We ended up going back to the front of the studio, because Gackt’s car was still there, and we figured he’d have to come back out sometime. The black SUV ended up leaving though, but we hoped it would come back. There were some other fans waiting, and we even tried to get on the TV, but the camera cut out right before getting to us, which was awfully disappointing. We thought that as foreigners, we’d have a really good chance of getting on TV!

At some point, Saori’s friend came, and we told her that she had really missed out on seeing Gackt! She just smiled and was like “…Sure.” Saori and her friend went to buy us something to drink (A Volvic for me. ^^v) since we were getting thirsty, and left her cell phone with Sara and I. About ten minutes later, her cell phone rang, and I answered it, only to have Saori tell me that she had gone around to the back of the studio to get the drinks, only to spot Gackt’s car. She also said that a lot of fans were waiting out there.

Sara and I rushed back, and sure enough, there were a ton of people, and Gackt’s car as well. To our dismay though, they had the car pull into a garage type thing, and to make matters worse, they shut the door. It made us mad, since they’d forced us to stand back on the sidewalk, which made me think that Gackt would be coming out.

We heard screams eventually, and we knew Gackt had exited the studio, and some fans over to our left could see him. We heard the car door open and shut, and the door opened, and out backed the car. I remember squinting to try to see into the windows, but they were too dark. The SUV was soon out of sight, leaving behind just the bodyguards, who made sure we didn’t follow, while I stood there, drinking the Volvic that Saori had given me.

I spent the rest of the day in a daze, but I couldn’t complain: I hadn’t expected to see Gackt at all, and somehow, just by luck, I’d managed to see him. I was also worried that he was going to be crabby on the show, since he’d had to go through a good minute of screeching fans, but he was actually incredibly cute. :)

And I also realized that Gackt really is like a drug. I always thought that if I could see him, even for a second, that I’d be good for life. The second he disappeared from my sight though, there was only one thing on my mind: I HAVE TO SEE HIM AGAIN! So hopefully someday… :D

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