Urashima Tarö

Long ago, a man named Urashima Tarö found a turtle on the beach being toyed
with by a group of children. He purchased the turtle and released it in the ocean.
Two or three days later, while he was fishing on a boat as always, the grateful
turtle came and told him he would carry him on his back to the underwater Dragon
Palace. At the palace, the princess, Otohime, thanked him for saving the turtle.
After an unspecified number of days, remembrance of his mother and father
made him homesick, and he bid farewell to Otohime. The princess tried to dissuade
him from leaving, but finally let him go With a parting gift, a mysterious box called
tamatebako whose lid he was told never to open.
 When Tarö returned to his hometown, everything had changed. His home was
gone, his mother and father had perished, and the people he knew were nowhere to
be seen. Not remembering the princess's warning, he lifted the lid of the box. A cloud
of white smoke arose, turning him to a white-haired old man.