The Bongo

What do Koreans do when their Hyundai vans are too old to use? They ship them to Sudan, we’re going there soon. Of course, they pimp them first with some fake chrome details, put a reinforced bumper in the front, a luggage railing on top and a ladder in the back. The Sudanese like to have their luggage on the roof when they bump into each other. They are real pieces of shit cars, leaking oil and smelling of garlic. Some of them don’t even run. But there is a special Hyundai van called “Bongo Frontier II”. Can you understand this? I mean, really, understand it? Bongo Frontier Two !!!
That’s no ordinary Bongo. 
It’s the very forefront, the edge of Bongo, the Bongo Frontier. And it’s model two which must mean they’ve reached the front of Bongo and gone further, further into unknown Bongo, pushing the very limit, walking, balancing the Bongo edge. One step too far and there’s just too much Bongo, one step back and it’s hardly even Bongo anymore. On top of that this van was made in 1999. Imagine the level of Bongo they must now have reached! Do you think you and I will ever live to see Bongo of that magnitude? I think not. But we can dream. Dream of Bongo.

Going ashore in Kobe, Rokko Island, was nice. The place is rebuilt since The Great Hanshin Earthquake destroyed most of it back in 1995. All the residential buildings look like hotels and the parks look very artificial. But nice. We found a big department store. I wanted to buy a hat as usual but I couldn’t find any good ones. They all fade in the shadow of the hat I’m wearing now. 
Something happened to my friend and colleague, the third officer. He drank some weird seaweed tea. We had a lot of traffic on our watch tonight and he didn’t seem even bothered. Usually he swears at other vessels. Not this time. He simply navigated thru the mess and went on and on about the tea. He worried he wouldn’t be able to “score” anymore “weed drink” and kept shuddering and looking worried. I’m concerned.

Papa-san returned in Kobe as well. Not the same papa-san but I’ve recently learned that papa-san is more a concept than an actual person. He comes in many forms. This one actually had ninja swords. Real badass ones too. But I realized it might be a problem to bring it on the plane home. I also had flashbacks of the Hobbex-catalogue from when I was a kid. You could buy all kinds of sexy interior design items in there, such as spinning ceiling fans, ninja swords and beer glasses in the shape of a boot. I think it’s not for me. Besides I would probably break a lamp swinging it. But I did buy a Casio watch for 3000 yen.