A talented young fisherman named Urashima lives on the coast, and one day while he’s out on his boat he caught a big tortoise (yes, tortoise). According to Chamberlain/the narrator, Japanese tortoises live for a thousand years. Urashima, not wanting to end the tortoise’s life so early, releases it back into the sea. Urashima falls asleep on his boat, and a beautiful girl rises out of the sea and starts talking to Urashima. She explains she’s the Sea God’s daughter from the Dragon Palace, and the tortoise that Urashima just caught and released was actually her. Her father sent her to test Urashima’s character, and Urashima proved himself a good man. She offers him marriage and a happy life in the Dragon Palace. Urashima and the princess row to the Dragon Palace, which is the most beautiful and splendorous place. Three happy years pass, until one day Urashima tells his wife he would like to visit his family. She’s anxious about his leaving, but agrees, giving him a box and telling him to never open it, as he would be unable to return. Agreeing, Urashima takes the box and rows back to his home country. When he arrives, however, he finds that everything has changed–his home and village are gone, the trees are cut down, and there’s no women doing laundry like usual. Urashima asks two men passing by about his cottage, and the men tell him that it’s an old story, Urashima drowning 400 years ago, and the cottage is long gone. Realizing that time passes differently in the Palace, it “must be part of fairy-land,” and his three years of absence was hundreds of years in the mortal world. Urashima decides to return to his wife, but doesn’t know how to return on his own. Urashima forgets what his wife told him about the box, and decides to open it. A white cloud flies from the box and over the sea, and Urashima is devastated, remembering what his wife told him. He soon loses the ability to run or shout as he ages rapidly, and quickly falls over, dead. The narrator closes the story lamenting Urashima’s stupidity, and asking if the reader would like to visit the fantastic Dragon Palace.

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