Hamtaro

Oxnard seems to have a lot of trouble with doors in this episode.

The title of Laura's book is Urashima and The Kingdom Under the Sea.

Taro Urashima's full story is about a man who goes fishing every day and night and sells his fish to get money, since he is very poor. One day he saw some kids torturing an animal so he gave the kids some coins to buy something and leave the animal alone. A beautiful maiden rose from the sea and claimed that he should never open it. Urashima spent three nights under the sea with the maiden, and when he came back up, it was three hundred years ago. Horrified that his family had all died out he opened the box in hope to find out the answers...and he lost his immortality in the process.

The fairy tale being performed at the aquarium is a famous Japanese folk tale of a man named Taro Urashima, whose surname appears on the book Laura holds at one point (nice of them to leave a bit of the culture intact, eh?). It plays out just as it does in this episode, although the box given to him by the princess (the Tamatebako) isn't said to contain an evil spell, á lá Pandora's Box, but is instead a souvenir of his time spent at the palace (Ryuuguujou). He is still warned to never open it, however. The ending, which is not covered in the episode, carries out thusly: After turning into an old man from opening the Tamatebako (or before, sometimes), Taro returns to his village, only to learn that many years have passed whilst he was in the underwater palace and that everyone he knew has long since died. Thus, old and alone, Taro dies of despair.