Talk:Umi Osho/@comment-24664052-20160904030447/@comment-29602226-20160904113903

The tale is Urashima Tarō's. Urashima rescues a small sea turtle from some kids and releases it. Afterwards a big sea turtle comes and takes him to Ryugujo, where he discovers that the turtle he saved was sea princess Otohime in disguise.

Urashima doesn't marry the princess, but he parties in her palace for three days. Then he gets worried for his old mother, who must be worried sick, and asks to be sent back. The princess gives him a box which he is supposed to take back home, but to never open.

When Urashima comes back to his home, he discovers that 300 years have passed in the world of humans, and everybody he knew is dead, and everything he owned is lost. He feels desperate, and opens the box (he hasn't anything more to lose, anyways...)... it turns that the box was the seal of the spell that kept him young, and once he opened it he aged those 300 years in an instant.

It could be interpreted as a cautionary tale against curiosity and against disobeying orders, but honestly, I feel like Otohime was just being petty because he didn't choose to stay with her. Or it could be that spirits are just dicks and will wreck your life (it would have been better if Urashima had refused to visit the undersea palace).