Good evening. Welcome to the Just Sleep podcast. I'm Tasia, your host.

Every week, I will read you an old story to help you relax, put the stressful day behind you,

and drift off to sleep.

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Tonight, I will be reading two Japanese fairy tales from the book Japanese fairy tales

translated by Yei Theodora Ozaki.

The Adventures of Kintaro, the Golden Boy, and the story of Urashima Taro, the Fisher Lad.

So lie down, close your eyes, and let me read you a story.

The Adventures of Kintaro, the Golden Boy.

Long, long ago, there lived in Kyoto, a brave soldier named Kintoki.

Now he fell in love with a beautiful lady and married her. Not long after this, through the malice of some of his friends, he fell into disgrace at court and was dismissed. This misfortune so preyed upon his mind that he did not long survive his dismissal. He died, leaving behind him his beautiful young wife

to face the world alone. Faring her husband's enemies, she fled to the Ashigara Mountains

as soon as her husband was dead, and there in the lonely forests where no one ever came, except woodcutters,

a little boy was born to her. She called him Kintaro or the Golden Boy.

Now the remarkable thing about this child was his great strength. And as he grew older,

he grew stronger and stronger, so that by the time

he was eight years of age, he was able to cut down trees as quickly as the woodcutters. Then his mother

gave him a large axe, and he used to go out in the forest and help the woodcutters, who called him

Wonderchild, and his mother, the old nurse of the mountains,

...