Review: Excellent, unusual short story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 17, 2011
Reviewing the free Kindle version.  I did not give this a 5 because there were several editing errors.This was a very different, rather existentialist sort of short story that reminded me of early computer games like "Adventure".  The reader wonders to herself "where is this story going?  what is the point?"  This is a shared experience with the main character who wanders lost in a city in Japan, trying to find his way back to his hotel. Like Hansel, he tries to leave a trail, not of breadcrumbs, but of vending machines, but they mislead him and he keeps circling back around to the same starting point at the train station, until he discovers a magic cave- well, really a bar, what would you expect in the tourist part of town?  But from there, chance encounters happen, there's some drinking and the disjointed sort of things that happen when you are out drinking and an eventual conclusion.I really enjoyed this story, unlike most of the other reviewers here.  I found it quirky, very well-written and while it and the main character meandered, it all made aesthetic sense.  It was easy to feel sympathy for the main character, and to begin to see and feel through his eyes.  The author just managed to catch one of those interesting, frustrating and adventurous moments in a traveler's life.