I had the opportunity to attend a reception held at the palace, which serves as the Presidential Office as well as the guest house for VIPs from abroad, and I happened to be able to look at the inside of the building that I usually cannot even enter. As an office of the highest authority of the country, it had a neat and clean feeling with a French-style interior. Then there was a memorial parade from 6:30 in the morning, and I was feeling quite lazy and heavy as leaving to see it. But I felt relived when it was over by 9:30am before the sun got extremely hot. I realized later on that it was their thoughtfulness to finish it early to make it easy both for the people watching and those performing. You know that when seeing a ceremony in North Korea or China, there are soldiers marching and bending their knees at an angle of 40 degrees or so with a straight back? There was that kind of marching also on this occasion, but because the way they were moving their legs was so unsystematic, and the distance of marching was no more than fifty meters, my friends and I couldn't help laughing as saying "That's really Laotian." Such words as "try hard" and "effort" don't go well with this country, and I've never seen such kind of situation either. Along with the soldiers, there were also parade floats, which had been decorated in a theme carried by each department, in the marching, but it was clearly obvious that they were being handled in an inexpensive way. I was invited to a dinner party held by the government for that evening and I was greatly interested what kind of food I'd be served, but it was Laotian food. During the meal some high-ranked officials were going round the tables to say "Cheers!" and as I had to stand up and sit down over and over each time and I was dressed a bit nicely in a tight long skirt, I was tired from doing that. It is one of the pleasant customs of Laos to drink toasts many times during a meal. Then I went to see the fireworks after the meal. Amazingly, I saw them from only about two-hundred meters away from the ignition point. Though the fireworks were extremely gorgeous and beautiful, I was a bit frightened at first feeling as if they were falling on my head. I realized that as for the fireworks, seeing at closer range is not always better. Besides, it wearied my neck as well.

Looking at the way the ceremony was managed, my husband and I now have a better opinion about Laos. My husband has seen the ceremonies of national foundation or independence in such countries as Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Liberia so far, but he says that Laos is the best among them. According to him, Laos is not carrying it to excess, and is attentive to details. For instance, an English translation of the President's speech was handed out in advance, so that we could understand what he was saying while listening to him. When I attended a ceremony in Sri Lanka, several people of high rank made long speeches in Sinhalese, and foreign people present had no choice but to pretend to be listening seriously. Moreover, in the President's speech itself, rather than splendidly infusing their progress of the past twenty-five years, he was emphasizing the fact that Laos was the poorest country in the world and so that they must make more efforts from now on. He was also expressing his aim to stamp out corrupt practices out of the governmental works and to improve the bureaucratic way of management.

Translated by Maiko Noda