Hi everyone!  Have you heard of any Japanese folk tales (Nihon no mukashi banashi,日本の昔話)?  Just like in any language, we have some classical folk tales to which we have been introduced since we were little .  In this article, I would like to introduce you to a famous Japanese folk tale called “Peach Boy” (Momo taro, ももたろう). This is by far the top classical folk tale in Japan.  This story has been translated into English many times.

This story is basically about a boy who is born from a giant peach that a grandma finds one day while she is washing her clothes in the river.  When he grows up, he decides to go on a quest to fight against monsters with help from a dog, a monkey, and a pheasant.  At the end, they end up conquering the monsters to bring peace to their village.

Although these videos does not cover the entire story of Peach Boy, I found the following videos both in English and Japanese.  This will be a great tool for someone who is learning Japanese.  Try watching in both languages, perhaps you could learn more Japanese vocabularies by watching these videos.  Story is easy to understand and makes the learning fun as well!  I have attached a list of vocabularies at the end so you can reference the words later.

This one is in Japanese with English subtitles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEUCK_YSZY8

This one is in English with Japanese subtitles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY0YreGkAek Vocabulary List:

Here is the full version of the story in writing:

http://www.geocities.co.jp/HeartLand-Gaien/7211/momo.html

If you would like to learn more about Japanese folk tales, check out this web site: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/video/27265/

Here you can watch animation on many other Japanese folk tales with English translation.

Enjoy!