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.