Litigious

Saturday night at 8PM the doorbell rings. It's a delivery of 3 bottles of sake. Last February we took a factory tour at a sake manufacturer. It was so cold back then, even inside the plant. The workers greeted us in a most friendly way and allowed a tour of about 30 people to go everywhere and see everything in the plant. They even let us common folks make our own sake, and that is what was delivered this past weekend. The invoice was included inside the box, as the company trusts us to make payment.

Sake rice is a special grain and it isn't anything like Rice A Roni or even sushi rice that you may have eaten. We spread the rice out on a giant cheese cloth looking sheet and then dumped it into the vat where we mixed it prior to it being set aside for fermentation.

The company makes expensive hand made sake and also a cheaper mass produced sake. The vats for the mass produced sake must have been 20 feet high. You can climb up on a rickety wooden ladder if you wear the slippers they provide. The vats are surrounded by scaffolding and boards are laid down near the top of the vats for people to walk on. You then mix the fermenting liquid with 10 foot long bamboo poles if you are brave enough to go up there. Oh, by the way, did I mention that we were informed that if you fall in the vat you will die from the strong fumes? Die!

The top 3 feet or so of the vat sticks up above the scaffold, so you would have to step or fall over a 3 foot high lip to fall in. Everyone went up there to experience real sake making and take a photo, kids included. I was shivering from the cold and from fear that either my 9 year old or I might fall in.

No one signed a release form and there were really no safety belts or barriers or anything. Adults were simply considered responsible enough to decide for themselves and their children if it was safe enough. The company had no visible fear of lawsuits. Do you really think the general public would be permitted to do the same in litigious America? Where lawsuits arise out of even the slightest perceived tort?

Life is better in Japan as a result of the lack of fear over litigation. People can experience life, resources are freed up for higher purposes, and it just feels better to be treated like a trusted adult.

In Japan, we were also permitted to tour the All Nippon Airline maintenance facility, use an indoor rock climbing facility, and ride a rented all terrain vehicle without signing release forms or feeling like we were taking some risk that a government mommy would protect us from. In America, experiencing life is restrained because of the litigious nature of society and worship of the false god of "safety".

Last time we were in a hotel in America, the iron in the room had a warning label that said you should not iron any clothing while you wee wearing it. Funny, but doesn't this sort of thing make you feel like you're a helpless child who needs to be told what to do and what not to do?