The foreigners who don't try to live up to the social standards while living here should be shunned by the local gaijins.
I walked around for a few hours, not knowing the town. Many sites of severe structural damage, but some businesses were already open. I passed by a noodle shop run by a young guy. He called out to me and said "You look hungry." (I speak Japanese). He offered me a free bowl of noodles. I finally ended up getting out of town two days later by finding a cab and riding all the way to Fukushima Airport, for the last flight to Tokyo, and then back home to Kobe.
The order, decency, and humanity I experienced those few days still make me tear up when I think about it (even right now).
Isn't this an oxymoron? I don't really know Japanese, but as far as I'm aware this means something along the lines of "local foreigners".
"Local gaijin" are thus simply people living in the area but not of japanese ethnicity. Mostly expats.
This is very American way of thinking. Japanese society is like it is precisely because it follows different norms than American ones.
Usually there's a smooth flow of people entering and exiting as everyone seem to know where to go (left or right) because there are maps of train car # to every other station's exits on the line. While they were figuring out whether to go left or right on the platform, they were blocking everyone on that side of the platform right at Shinjuku (literally the busiest station on Earth).
There are dozens of lines criss-crossing the city and every one of them is running accurate to the minute. We take it for granted living here. But boy, when articles like this come around every so often, mind blown. I never gave the crowd behavioural aspect of this system much thought. But this article reminded me of that incident with the tourists. It's impressive how behavioural quirks of the commuters are critical to the overall efficiency of the system. (obvious in hindsight)
Thanks for sharing!