This is quite a good book once you get past the first chapter which is repetitive and full of questions. I'm glad I carried on reading it though because it does have some good information. Shame the illustrations aren't included, some of the examples are a bit hard to follow based on the text which replaces them.
I picked this book up because B Chons review of it appeared on the recent reviews page and it sounded interesting. It sat on my PDA for a while unread but once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. What I'm trying to say is even if you've no interest in Atlantis give this book a try, you might find yourself caught up in the mystery.
The earth passes into a nebula that causes massive flooding, only one odd genius knows what's going to happen and does his best to warn people and build an ark to save himself and as many people as he can. Great reading for a rainy night!
These folk tales are not very engaging and their endings have little relation to the rest of the story making them interchangeable.
A rich/brave/poor man meets a badger/fox/fish and does something nice for them and in return gets a trinket of some kind, the end.
A bit of a let down, maybe one of the other collections of Japanese folk-lore is better.