i wish i had a case

Americans like to sue people. The first thing I thought of today when my bus was so early (7 minutes) that I missed it, was: "If I get further injured by riding my bike instead of being able to take this bus, I'm gonna sue the bus company for my medical bills."

Of course, I don't think I'd have a case. They'd say, "You could have called a cab. You could have walked. You could have waited for the next bus." And I would answer with all sorts of lame excuses which would not win me any money, "I don't have money to call a cab. I shouldn't be walking either. I'd miss my class if I waited for the next bus."

The point is, I immediately skipped the "writing a letter of complaint" stage and jumped to the "sue the pants off them!" stage. Typically American of me. In Japan, there are very few lawsuits. In listing off reasons why, most people say: they don't have many lawyers, the system is so slow that you would die before your case comes to court, and it is simply not done. I think all of these would be correct in some fashion or another. I don't know the right answer. I just know that if a woman spills McDonald's hot coffee on her lap in Japan, she immediately thinks, "Oh, how clumsy of me!" not, "I'm gonna sue McDonald's!"