[N5] うらしま　たろう

Urashima Tarō is a Japanese folklore character. He rescues a turtle and rides on its back to the bottom of the sea, where the beautiful ocean princess Otohime is waiting for him.

This retelling for N5 has rather short sentences, but includes some more unusual words. At about 5 sentences per page, it is also quite lengthy for that level.

Nevertheless, the story is very compelling to read and the illustrations support the comprehension of new words.

In addition to the story itself, the song about Urashima Tarō is printed at the end of this book. It is often sung in Japanese kindergardens and elementary schools. I looked it up on YouTube and found this really cute version by ポケモン KidsTV that stars Pikachu as Urashima Tarō and Jynx as the ocean princess Otohime.

Urashima Tarō’s story is part of a graded reader set by the NPO Tagengo Tadoku and ask. It consists of 5 books in total, including two contemporary fictional stories, a collection of four short stories and The Tale of Hachi.

You can order this set on Amazon Japan or OMG Japan. If you decide to purchase the reader through either of these links, I receive a small percentage of what you’ve paid as a comission.