Sparks of Neon

Tokyo is a city designed long ago as a maze to prevent easy assault on the central castle. Streets curve and loop back unexpectedly. Clear destinations shift and fade off like evaporating mirages. There are social convolutions in the way that the basest criminals can swing into alignment with the highest echelons of society. One naive American navigated the maze that is Tokyo for fifteen years. Some twists brought him unimagined sexual fulfillment. Other turns separated him from longtime friends. There were paths that led him to scenes of living history, others to a mirror world of opposite assumptions. But ultimately his life in Tokyo looped around like the Yamanote circle line and ended where it began. It began in a walk into Kabukicho-Tokyo's red-light district.