There was a man living on a small island in the Seto Inland Sea who had a goat. He was not an old man, and he didn't know much about ruminants, so when his goat grew bigger, and its stubbornness exceeded its usefulness, the man started looking for a way to get rid of it. Rather than roast the goat, he put it in his boat and left it on an uninhabited island.
That was several years ago, and not many people know about it, but I had been told by someone close to him. Because of the peculiarities of Japanese grammar, however, I was not sure if it was just one goat or two that the man had betrayed.
Then one day recently, a red trimaran sailed to Shiraishi Island and dropped anchor. The owners wanted to meet me because, as it turned out, we had a mutual Czech friend. Bruce and Alene were an American couple sailing around the world, and Japan was just one of their many stops.