The Japanese Frogs

Once upon a time in Mighty Japan there lived two frogs. One lived in a town called Osaka which was by the seaside, the other lived by a stream at the town of Kyoto where the Mikado’s Palace was. They each wanted to see more of their lovely country so the one frog packed his bag and started off for Kyoto which he had never seen before. The other wished to see the seaside so set off towards the town of Osaka by the coast. The way was tough for two chaps quite so small in stature and they each wished that they were bigger to make the going easier on them both. Half-way there they came across a big mountain which they had to climb first if they wished to complete their journey. After a great struggle they both reached the top of the mountain at last and were surprised to look at each other for the first time. Fancy finding another frog on top of the great mountain on the way of the same journey as you had undertaken this morning. They were happy as they shared their travels with one another. ‘But what if we were bigger and could I see both towns from here?’ said the Osaka frog. ‘What we should do is stand up straight shoulder to shoulder then we will both be tall enough to see the towns we are going to.’ replied the Kyoto chap. So they reached up to a straight posture and held on to each other tight to see where they were going, but in doing so their noses pointed in the direction of the town they were headed to, and their eyes were at the back of their heads and looked back at the places that they had come from. Each one was actually looking back on his very own home town. ‘If I knew Kyoto was just like Osaka I would never have traveled all this way,’ said the one from Osaka by the coast. ‘It seems that what you say is true,’ replied the other, ‘Osaka is just another Kyoto after all.’ And they both just laughed at their own mistake, shrugged their shoulders and each one turned around and headed back to his own home from there on. They would never know that the two towns that they were headed to were as different from one another as you could ever find. They would live until their dying day believing that the one was quite just like the other. Isn’t it funny how we travelers of the world sometimes are?