Around the World in Stories: A Child’s Journey Through Culture and Wonder

The train pulled away from a station so small it didn't even have a name. I stepped out into the thick summer air of rural Japan. Cicadas buzzed like a power line. I was walking a path between rice paddies when I saw a little house, tucked beside a grove of bamboo. An old woman lived there. The villagers called her O-baasan, which just means grandma. Her home always smelled of green tea and kindness. And something else. Something wild. One rainy autumn evening, there was a scratching at her paper screen door. She slid it open. It wasn't a person. It was a small, shivering creature with a ringed tail and a masked face.

A tanuki. A raccoon dog. Most people would shoo it away. They’re known tricksters. But O-baasan brought it inside. She dried its fur. She gave it a plate of sweet rice dumplings, called dango. The tanuki ate every last one. He stayed for a few days, warm and safe, before disappearing back into the forest. Winter came. O-baasan was poor. One morning, she counted her coins. She didn’t even have enough for a small bag of tea leaves. She sat at her table and sighed a little cloud of steam into the cold air. The next morning, something was different. Her old, dented iron tea kettle was gone.

In its place, sitting perfectly on the hearth, was a magnificent bronze kettle. It was heavy, and shone like a temple bell. Where did it come from? Confused, but needing a hot drink, she filled it with water and placed it over the coals. And then… the kettle sprouted a furry head. It grew four stubby legs. A bushy tail popped out of the back. "Yowch! Hot hot hot!" it squeaked, and leaped right off the fire. It was the tanuki. He hadn't left. He'd been watching. He had transformed himself into a kettle to help her. "Take me to the town fair," he said, doing a little dance.

"I will be the amazing dancing tea kettle!" And she did. The sight of a bronze kettle walking a tightrope between two bamboo poles was something nobody had ever seen. They made enough money for tea, and dango, for the whole year. The tanuki didn't stay a kettle. He returned to his furry, mischievous self. But he never strayed far from the little house. He’d visit O-baasan every day, sharing stories from the woods. And her old, dented iron kettle, which she found tucked safely in a cupboard… it always seemed to hold its warmth just a little bit longer.