No Bobsled Accidents

I was in the secretary's office today and lucky for me, a friend who is fluent in English and Japanese was there to translate. Here is a brief rundown of the conversation.

Translation Friend: "The secretary says you have to buy insurance to cover your field work."
Me: "I already have the required medical insurance,and the required family insurance, and the required extended health insurance."
T.F: "No, it isn't a health coverage thing, its for field work."
Me: "What do you mean? What kind of other insurance would I need for field work."
T.F.: "I am not sure, but the University requires anyone who goes to do field work to hold this insurance. It is mandatory. The secretary needs you to pay it."
Side note - the secretary always feels awkward asking me for money or more signatures. It was a relief to have a fluent translator helping this process along.
Me: "Tell her no problem, I will pay the insurance. When does she need the money?"
T.F.: "Today."
Me: "I will have to pay her tomorrow."
Side note - this conversation is happening at 4:00 in the afternoon and she usually leaves around 4:30.
T.F.: "She says that is ok."
Me: "I still want to know why they seem to need me to pay for insurance that should be covered by the University. What is this insurance for?"
T.F.: "She is looking up the paperwork, it will take her a minute to find out what it is for. She hasn't ever been asked that before."


T.F.: Reading the paperwork (with the help of another Japanese guy who can read kanji). "OK, well it looks like you are covered in case you die in the field."
Me: "That doesn't do me much good."
T.F.: "And this coverage means that they will come and look for you if you go missing while doing field work."
Me: "Are you telling me that they won't send out search and rescue if I go missing while undertaking field work on behalf of the university unless I buy this insurance."
T.F.: "Kind of.... Well they might come look for you, but it is expensive."
Me:"Please tell me that you are joking. They don't leave missing people on a rock somewhere in the raging Pacific just because they didn't buy this silly insurance."
T.F.: "Wait, there are some exceptions listed. It says here that this insurance doesn't count if you are in a car accident, or if you go missing as a result of tsunami, earthquake or volcanic activity."
Me: "The tsunami coverage would certainly be nice considering that we work on the rocky shore in a country that created the word "tsunami". Is that all the exceptions?"
T.F.: "No, it also says that you aren't covered if you have an accident that results from drunk driving, suicidal activity, skydiving and bobsledding, and the list goes on."

So, I am now the proud owner of insurance that allows me to do field work with the comfort of knowing that they might recover my bloated corpse so long as I go missing as a result of an accident involving some bizzare activity that they haven't dreamt of excluding, like hippo wrestling or magic carpet riding.