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Today's first guest is Danya from A Tapestry of Words. She's got an awesome post prepared for us and I can't wait for the rest of you to read this amazing post! So, without taking anymore of your time, here's Danya.

When someone says the word “fairy tale” what’s the first thing that pops into your head? Cinderella’s glass slipper, perhaps. Beauty and the Beast twirling around a ballroom. Seven dwarves with seven distinct personalities. An ugly little man with a penchant for other people’s first-born children. But probably not…
A baby girl found inside a bamboo trunk.
A fox who can shapeshift into a beautiful woman.
A tea-kettle that’s really a raccoon-dog in disguise.
A boy who battles demons with the help of a monkey, pheasant and dog.
Right?
Yet these are all fairy tales…from Japan. Ever since I started studying Japanese (way back in elementary school) I have collected Japanese fairy tale and folk tale books. I thought I’d share my favourite story along with some of the illustrations from the version I own.

This one is the first Japanese fairy tale I learned about, and it's probably also the most famous. In Japanese it's called "Kaguya-hime," but it also often goes by the titles “The Bamboo-Cutter’s Daughter,” “The Bamboo Princess,” "Lady Kaguya's Secret," or “The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter.” The story begins with an old bamboo-cutter chopping down a shining bamboo tree one day to find, to his surprise, a little baby girl inside.

He and his wife adopt her, christening her “Kaguya-hime” which means “Radiant Princess.” Though the couple was originally poor, now every time he chops down bamboo, inside the trunks are gold pieces. The girl grows into a stunningly beautiful woman who is soon surrounded by admirers hoping to wed her. She doesn’t wish to marry any of them, but agrees to set each of them a task to complete to demonstrate their courage. She asks one to bring her the Buddha’s stone bowl, another the golden bough from Mount Horai’s sacred tree, a third a jewel from a dragon’s forehead, and so on. None of them manage to satisfactorily complete these impossible tasks.

The Emperor soon hears of this and demands to see her, but she will not come to court. Angry, he goes to her home in person, but when he sees her he falls immediately in love and tells the bamboo-cutter that Kaguya-hime will marry him. It is then that Kaguya-hime admits that she is a princess from the moon, and must return to her home there soon. Distraught, the Emperor goes back to his palace, but sends Kaguya-hime exquisite presents, and they begin to exchange poems.

Then one evening the Moon King comes for Kaguya-hime, ignoring her pleas to stay on earth. The Emperor had set a guard around her, but at midnight all of the soldiers are rendered immobile as a cloud drifts down from the moon and floats over the bamboo-cutter's house. A voice commands Kaguya-hime to drink from a goblet, which contains the elixir of immortality. She does so, then is told to put on a shining robe that will cause her to forget all her memories of life on earth. Desperate, she writes one final letter to the Emperor and, along with the last of the elixir, gives it to him. Then she wraps the robe around herself and returns with the cloud to the moon.
The Emperor, heartbroken, does not wish to live forever without her. He finds the mountain that is closest to the heavens, and there he burns the letter, fueling the fire with the elixir of immortality. "Let the smoke reach her and help her to remember for just a moment!" the Emperor cries out in anguish.

And to this day, we can sometimes still see a wisp of smoke floating up from the crater top of Mt. Fuji.

And now, just because I can... I've actually hiked up Mt. Fuji. It's a grueling climb, but getting to the top is very satisfactory. Here are some photos from my experience:

The view hiking up, as the sun set behind some other mountain peaks.

Made it to the top! And just in time for...

... the sunrise!