The Friends by Kazumi Yumoto \u2013 a summer with warm sunshine, verdant garden and beautiful love\u2026\n\n This book is a story about three Japanese schoolboys: chubby Yamashita, \\"four-eyed\\" Kawabe, and bean-pole Kiyama, the narrator. After the death of Yamashita's grandmother, all of them usually are fascinated by the world of ghosts, curious about the death of human, and intrigued at the question: \\"What do people look like when they die?\u201D. With these naive thoughts, they have a big decision: spying on an unkempt old man that \u201Cwill probably drop dead soon\u201D to catch him at the point of his demise.\n\n Oddly, things don't work out as the old man, who seems to have plenty of energy, discovers that he is being watched. He varies his daily routine to solicit the boys' help in doing housekeeping chores. Day after day, the relationship between them changes. They help him hang his laundry, weed his yard, repair his house, and plant flowers. In return, the old man shares watermelons, strawberry, listens to the boys, tells them about his participation in a wartime massacre. He teaches the kids all the good things they need to learn and shows them the value of a beautiful life. \n\n During the course of their friendship with the old man, Yamashita, Kawabe and Kiyama learn how to cope with their fears and accept the inevitable. Kiyama becomes stronger and gets into the \u201Cfirst big fight\u201D of his life. Wakabe feels more confident to say about his desire to live with his father. Yamashita stops being ashamed of the dream of setting up his fish shop. And above all, they bring the old man wonderful priceless joys until he passes away quietly and leaves them \u201Ca friend in the next world\u201D\u2026\n\n At the funeral ritual, upon seeing the bits of the old man's bones, they reflect on the lessons that the old man had taught them. They are so lucky to be able to hold vivid and endearing memories of him. His house is filled with the aroma of the flower they planted. This subtle aroma is a heartfelt goodbye of the reality for the old man. In the passage of time and nature, a beautiful summer is coming to an end, a great person is saying goodbye to the world, but such precious lessons about love, hope and friendship are left and remain forever\u2026\n\n I believe people coming to this book and enjoying the words are engrossed with this attractive story. It is so exciting and touching that I could not do anything except turning pages after pages. And when I finished it, I realized deeply in my heart, there is profound sorrow. The death is truly the saddest thing in the whole universe. I want to hold all these characters in my arms and tell them how special they are and how much I love them. \n\n \u201CJust breathing is not living!\u201D - Heartbeats and breathe are just signs of human existence. Living means being enthusiastic and sharing love with each other. Life is a significant journey which has both tiring difficulties and amazing happiness. Just stopping breathing is not dying. The death always comes with an extremely expensive cost because the dead leave the living a deep hurt that nothing can heal\u2026\n\n When closing this book, everyone has their own thoughts and feelings. \u201CThe Friends\u201D by Kazumi Yomoto makes me love my life and people around me much more. It is a great motivation for me to be stronger to face troubles I have and to be more passionate to enjoy my beautiful life.

For a long time, I've considered eschewing attending a university in my country in favor of studying aboard because I believe pursuing education overseas is a life-changing opportunity that brings students beneficial experiences to widen their horizon and experience a brand-new country with new lifestyle, culture, language and nature. Therefore, I always ask myself: ‘What country is suitable for me to study aboard?' After thinking twice about it, from my heart, I know Japan is the most appropriate country for me to get higher education because of these things: First of all, international students in Japan have chances to receive the benefits of some of the highest educational standards in the world with over 700 universities and many of them are ranked in the top of Asia, even the world such as: The University of Tokyo, Kyoto, Keio, and Nagoya. These universities are some of the best places for me to study, enlarge knowledge and develop my skills, which is the prologue for getting a good job in the future. Furthermore, a wide range of scholarships are available to international students. As far as I'm concerned, all the Japanese government, universities, public and private organizations provide students with a plenty of generous scholarships. Not only is the life quality of students in Japan very good, but tuition fees are also comparatively cheap. Compared to other popular destinations like the USA, Australia, or the UK, Japan is the cheapest place to study abroad. Interestingly, there are a huge number of meaningful outdoor activities at Japanese universities, which lets students be exposed to foreign cultures and gives them chances to release stress after hard lessons. Besides, international students are allowed to work part-time in order to make extra income, which is very suitable for my living conditions due to the fact that I can help my parents reduce the money used for my study in the future. What a wonderful thing! Secondly, in the future, I want to enroll in the faculty of Informatics at a famous university because I've dreamed of being a successful software developer for years. I believe that my dream will come true after I finish my Informatics degree at a Japanese university. It can't be denied that Japan is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world and Informatics degrees in Japanese universities are very helpful, informative, valuable and always up-to-date. Students are taught to write code, programs, build and design software effectively and professionally, provided with a huge source of information about computer and many opportunities to put the knowledge gained into practice. After graduation, with those experiences, I'll be able to get a good job in my country, Vietnam. I hope my future software can make a significant contribution to the development of education and society in Vietnam and narrow the gap between my country and the world. Next, I've fallen in love with Japanese culture since I was quite small. People around the world have a deep respect for Japanese because of their politeness, honesty, punctuality, kindness, intelligence, diligence, and patience. When studying in Japan, I'll have chances to learn these great qualities and experience a both well-preserved and modern culture. I'm also extremely impressed by peaceful shrines, torii gates and wonderful colorful traditional ceremonies such as Judo, Karate, Kado, and Chado. Additionally, Japan is the land of amazing anime feature films and television animations. There are lots of films that have been an essential part of my childhood and my daily life such as ‘My neighbor Totoro', ‘Your name', 'One Piece' and ‘Doraemon'. Japanese literature also is very special: often dark but emotional and full of humor. This is the reason why a lot of people enjoying literature have a mysterious love for Japanese novels. So do I. I'm deeply interested in reading wonderful novels of Murakami Haruki and Higashino Keigo such as ‘Norwegian Wood', ‘Naoko' and ‘1Q84'. Through them, I can imagine the life of Japanese – a subtle and enthusiastic life. Finally, I'm looking forward to trying Japanese foods and enjoying Japanese nature. The foods are so unique, refresh, and delicious that a big amount of people are attracted. People having ever tasted Ramen, Sushi, Tempura, Sake, or other Japanese foods never forget the favor of these. Japan's nature is full of incredible beauty and fantastic wonders beyond the imagination. The sense is very lively, exciting picturesque and magnificent. I've a wish to see velvety cherry blossom, lovely snow monkeys and famous fascinating huge volcanoes for myself. How amazing they are! People usually say and write about 'American dream'. But in my heart, besides 'American dream', 'Japanese dream' hold a special place. I've to say: Japan is such a great, wonderful and astounding country that I'll do my best to win a scholarship to study there and enjoy the miraculous things of it.