Slide 1 : December 3, 2010 Learning English Online (LEO) Sharing Stories
Agenda Presenters
Aka Ken
Richard Green
Participants
Japanese folk tale and Einstein : Japanese folk tale and Einstein Urasima Taro
浦島太郎
Urashima and the Kingdom Beneath the Sea
Slide 3 : Long, long ago, there lived a kind and romantic fisherman called "Urashima Taro". One day ,when he took a walk along the beach, he saved a turtle which had been being tormented by the village children. When several days had passed, he was fishing as usual. Then the turtle he had helped came to him from the sea."Mr. Fisherman, I am the turtle was saved by you the other day. My princess told me to bring you to the Dragon Palace(Ryugu) to thank you." said the turtle.It took him on the back to the Dragon Palace under the sea.It was a very wonderful palace where there were much beautiful coral all over the sea and many fish swimming. What is better, he met a beautiful princess(Otohime). He had never seen such a beautiful lady before.
Slide 4 : "Mr.Urashima, please enjoy yourself here as long as you wish." said the princess.He forgot the passing of time. The life there seemed to him a dream. After several days, he remembered his old village and his old mother. It was time he had to come home. Parting with him, the princess gave him a little box as a souvenir. "Mr. Urashima, this is a magic box called "Tamate-bako". When you are in trouble, you can open it."When he came home on the turtle back again, he could not find his house and his old mother and he found his village had changed completely.He was at a loss what to do. At last, he opened the little box out of curiosity. When he opened it, a white smoke came out of it and he suddenly became an old man with long white beard. While he was having a happy time under the sea, hundreds of years had passed on the earth.He was not sure where he was now and whether it was a dream or not.
浦島太郎 : 浦島太郎 漁師だった浦島太郎はある日、子どもたちが亀をいじめているところに出くわした。浦島太郎が亀を助けると、亀はお礼に竜宮 城に連れて行ってくれるという。浦島太郎は、亀にまたがり、竜宮城に連れて行ってもらった。竜宮城には乙姫様がいて、浦島太郎を歓待してくれた。しばらく して浦島太郎は帰りたいと乙姫様に申し出た。乙姫様は引き止めたが、無理だと悟ると、玉手箱を「決してあけてはならない」として、渡してくれた。浦島太郎 が亀に乗り浜に帰ると、浦島太郎が知っている人は誰もいなかった。おかしいと思いつつ浦島太郎が玉手箱を開けると、中から煙が出てきた。そして、その煙を 浴びた浦島太郎は老人になっていた。竜宮城で浦島太郎が過ごした日々は数日だったが、地上では三百年が経っていたのだ。
Urashima effect : Urashima effect According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, the object that is moving with fast speed’s flow of time is slower than the object that is moving with slow speed’s flow of time. This phenomenon will be more noticeable when the moving object is approaching to the speed of light. And the time will stop when the object reached to the speed of light. Urashima Taro spent only three days at the Dragon palace, however, when he returned to the land, three hundred years had passed!
It is said that this story might suggest the space travel with close to the light speed. Thus the phenomenon that Einstein explained is called “Urashima effect” in Japanese.
Works Cited and Referenced : Works Cited and Referenced http://www.geocities.co.jp/HeartLand-Gaien/7211/urashima.html
http://story.awalker.jp/hazime.php?ID=urashima
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Urashima+effect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urashima_Tar%C5%8D