It's even more extreme outside the US. One of my most surreal experiences was eating at a food court in Bangkok in a businessy, but not especially ritzy, area.

It's even more extreme outside the US. One of my most surreal experiences was eating at a food court in Bangkok in a businessy, but not especially ritzy, area. It was extremely crowded and tables were limited, so people were claiming tables - by leaving things like their purse on the table! Or in the Taiwan subway going up/down escalators there is this extreme discipline where literally everybody stands to the right, leaving the left side open in case somebody happens to be in a rush. Here's [1] an image of that. [1] - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Escalator_to_Bannan_Line_on_MRT_Taipei_Main_Station_B3_20190811.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Escalator_to_Bannan_...