THE TALE OF URASHIMA TARO

Once upon a time, there was a young fisherman named

Urashima Taro. He lived with his old mother. He was known
for his modesty to the villagers.
One day, while walking along the beach, he saw some children
tormenting small turtles with heavy sticks. Seeing that he said,
“Hey, get away from it, stop hurting the turtle!” Immediately,
those children ran away and Taro released it back into the sea.
The next day, Taro was fishing along the beach. A large sea turtle
faced the ocean from the sea. The sea turtle said, “I am the turtle
you saved yesterday, I owe you my life and I want to thank you for
saving my life. I am inviting you to come with me to see the
Dragon Palace.” Taro was astonished knowing that there was a
Dragon Palace deep into the sea. He felt he had an old mother
alone at home, so he said to the turtle “I don’t want to leave my
mother alone at home so I have decided to stay for not long.” The
sea turtle put Taro on its back and dives into the sea.
In the Dragon Palace, a beautiful princess named Otohime
welcomed Taro and said “Yesterday you saved a turtle’s life and it
was me, please enjoy your time here and stay here as long as you
wish.” and he was welcomed with delicious treats and dancing of
fish dance. Taro danced and he enjoyed a couple of days.
Taro forgot the life he had before arriving there. A few days later,
he suddenly remembered his old mother and the village. So he
decided to return home from the Palace. Princess Otohime gave
him a jeweled hand box called Tamate Bako and said to him,
“This is a treasure of the Dragon Palace. When you face in
trouble, you can open it”. He said goodbye to here and then
climbed on the turtle’s back and returned to the beach.
When Taro returned to the beach after several days, his house
was gone. Additionally, everybody he knows was gone. Taro
caught a passing guy and he talked to him, “I am Taro, I am here
to find my mother and this is our house.” Listening to this, the
guy replied, “I used to hear there was a fisherman who used to
live here with his mother hundreds of years ago, it is impossible
that you are Urashima Taro!” Then the guy left.
Taro was so sad when he realized that there was no one who he
knew in this world. However, he remembered the special box he
got in the Dragon Palace, and he opened it. Then, smoke came
out from inside, and Taro quickly became an old-man and fell
down dead on the beach.