What qualities do you look for in a friend?

When I think of the things that are common among my friends, the first thing comes up that comes to my mind is the similarity in values. None of my close friends spend a lot of money on clothing or bags. They would rather have a reasonable lunch at a fine restaurant as often as possible, and that suits me well.

The other thing that occurs to me is we do not need to keep close contact with each other to stay friends. When I was a student, my friends were also students and we led the similar life similar lives. Spending some time with friends was a daily routine. However, we have now become adults, and some of us have children and others are busy with their work. It is not easy to find a convenient time. We see each other less and less with years, but when something happens I can talk to them as if I was seeing them twice a week.

I have one friend whom I saw only three times during last 20 years. She is a friend from junior high school. She moved in to our town when we were in ninth grade and moved out a year later. I often feel how lucky I am to have our friendship, considering how little time we spent together and we did not have emails back then. She has been suffering from serious atopic dermatitis and that is one of the reasons I cannot see her often. Despite that, I feel her very close I feel very close to her and hopefully she feels the same.