Terminal Angler 🇺🇸

The first time my friend from Colorado went skiing with me in Nagano, he stopped outside the mountain cafeteria and fumbled inside his jacket pocket for a steel cable lock. Then he looked up at the snow racks and froze. Standing in the snow outside the lodge were over 400 pairs of custom skis and snowboards worth $1,000 to $1,500 each. Over half a million dollars of high-end winter gear was sitting out in the open. Not a single lock on any of them. Inside the lodge, people did not even carry their backpacks around to find a table. They walked in, set their wallets, expensive goggles, and helmets down on an empty table to reserve their seats, and walked 30 yards away to stand in the hot curry line. When you grow up in a society where people are taught from childhood that taking something that is not yours disgraces your own name, you do not need steel cables to enjoy lunch.