About this episode Embark on a weekly global adventure with 'Around the World in Tales'! Join our seasoned traveler as they whisk your child away to distant lands, unraveling captivating stories steeped in unique traditions, mouth-watering foods, and enchanting folklore. This series promises to ignite a lifelong curiosity about our diverse planet, fostering cultural understanding and a spirit of exploration in young minds, one incredible tale at a time.
0:00 In Japan, some believe that foxes, or Kitsune, can live for a thousand years and grow nine tails.0:10 Last week, we heard the clever stories of Anansi the spider.0:16 Today, our trickster is a little furrier, and our journey takes us to a small village in the mountains of Japan.0:28 I arrived as the village was preparing for its autumn festival.0:35 Paper lanterns, like colorful, sleeping birds, were strung between the houses, waiting for nightfall.0:46 The air smelled of cool pine and damp earth.0:51 And as I looked toward the forest that hugged the village, I saw it.0:58 Just for a second.1:00 A flash of red fur, disappearing between ancient cedar trees.1:07 My host was a kind woman named Akiko-san, whose smile made her whole face crinkle.1:15 Her small inn was famous for one thing: her mochi.1:21 Sweet, sticky rice cakes.1:23 She invited me to help make the festival batch.1:28 We stood outside, taking turns lifting a giant wooden mallet, a kine, and bringing it down with a heavy THUMP...1:41 into a stone mortar filled with steamed rice.1:45 THUMP...1:46 THUMP...1:47 It was hard, rhythmic work.1:50 Akiko-san was making her most perfect batch for the shrine offering.1:57 A gift to the mountain spirits, to say thank you for the harvest.2:04 But the next morning...2:07 they were gone.2:08 The beautiful, lacquered box holding the mochi...2:14 had vanished from the small altar in her home.2:19 "The Kitsune," Akiko-san whispered, her voice full of disappointment.2:26 She told me of the fox spirit that lived in the woods.2:32 Playful.2:33 A trickster.2:34 Without the main offering, a shadow fell over the festival preparations.2:42 The cheerful mood was gone, replaced by worried whispers.2:48 I didn't believe the spirit was cruel.2:52 I remembered that flash of fur in the woods, not as a thief, but as something curious.3:01 That evening, just as the sun began to set, I took the last, single piece of mochi from our own dinner and walked to the little stone shrine at the edge of the forest.3:19 I placed the small, white cake on the mossy steps as my own offering.3:27 And I waited.3:28 Soon, a fox with intelligent, shining eyes and a tail like a fluffy plume crept out from behind a stone lantern.3:40 It looked at my mochi, then at me.3:44 It didn’t eat it.3:45 Instead, it nudged a small, cloth-wrapped bundle toward me with its nose.3:53 I carefully untied the cloth.3:56 Inside was Akiko-san's lacquered box, with her festival mochi, perfectly safe.4:05 But that wasn't all.4:07 Tucked beside the rice cakes were three wild persimmons, so ripe and perfect they glowed like tiny orange lanterns.4:19 The Kitsune hadn't stolen her gift.4:23 It had added its own.4:25 I ran back just as the festival drums began their deep, steady beat.4:33 You should have seen Akiko-san’s smile.4:37 That night, under the real lanterns and a full moon, the village celebrated.4:45 They gave thanks for the harvest, and they gave thanks for their mischievous, generous, furry neighbor.4:56 And as I tasted the sweet mochi, I understood.5:01 Some tricks are just kindness in disguise.
