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While going about our daily lives, we easily get used to the world as it is. We scroll carelessly through the societal norms and customs, not once stopping to think that things somewhere are way different. Not just contrasting, but almost upside down.

But TikTok creator Ryan is giving us all a very vivid glimpse of what it is like to live in Tokyo, surrounded by cultural shocks. His TikTok series titled “Things In Japan That Would Send An American Into A Coma” sheds a light on many Japanese lifestyle quirks that have amassed him 17.3M likes in total.

Scroll down to find out what Ryan found unusual in the Japanese way of living and let us know what you think of it in the comment section!

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#1

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker Children start walking to and from school and also taking the train from the age of five and six. So if you're just out walking around, and you see a kid just like, walking alone by themselves, they're fine. They're normally just walking to or from school.

ryanthetwat , note thanun Report

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#2

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker First things first, trash separation. When you move, your ward gives you an entire calendar of how you're going to separate your trash. Because I have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, I have six different trash cans to separate my trash and they all go out on different days. It's actually nice because they care about what happens to their trash. It is a little stressful sometimes, but I've gotten used to it. Japan has these trash cans where you separate your trash even at restaurants. All restaurants have this and they even have a drain for your drink. So drinks, don't get into the trash bag. It's genius. I don't know why America doesn't have this. And now when I go back to America, and I just throw everything in one trash can, I feel like the most wasteful human being in the world.

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Verena
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Roughly the same in some European countries. In my region in NL I have 5 waste bins and four of them get collected on different days. Orange (plastic, tetra, metal), blue (paper), green (kitchen and garden), grey (everything else) and glass (to be delivered at a collection point and to be sorted by color: white, green, brown). Grey every 4 weeks on Thursdays, blue every 4 weeks on Wednesdays, orange every 2 weeks on Mondays and green every 2 weeks on Fridays.

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#3

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker Everyone still wears masks in Japan everywhere. Yes, even when walking outside, even when just walking in your neighborhood, 99% of the time, they will be wearing a mask. It hasn't even been required for over like a year now, but it's so ingrained in the culture at this point that people refuse to take them off in fear of judgment. But obviously, it's also just a concern for other people and Japan is known to be a culture where people are very considerate of thy neighbor.

ryanthetwat , Maskmedicare Shop Report

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Anita Gaffney
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I visited Japan in 2019, a few months before Covid and so many people were wearing masks. They were for sale everywhere, so it appears to be the norm there even before Covid. Hands down my favourite country to have visited so far. I really want to go back :)

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#4

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker Every single phone in Japan has the shutter sound when you take a picture, even if you take the picture on Snapchat or any app, and you cannot disable it. This is required by the government because they wanted to stop men from taking photos of girls without them knowing. So if you buy a phone in Japan, it has the shutter sound and you can't turn it off. So if you go to a place like a museum or something, you'll just constantly hear the shutter sound. What a lot of people do to get around this is when they travel to another country, they'll use that time to buy an iPhone or just any phone and bring it back to Japan. Like when I had to get a new iPhone, I bought it in America and had it shipped to Japan because I was not going to deal with that shutter sound.

ryanthetwat , ROBIN WORRALL Report

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#5

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker Most train stations have a theme song. Like, I'm in Takadanobaba area a lot and they play the Astroboy theme song because Takadanobaba is Astroboy’s birthplace.

ryanthetwat , BREAKIFY Report

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David Paterson
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A warning about Japanese train stations. On the maps the names of train stations are written in Hiragana. On the stations themselves the names are written in Kanji. A completely different iconography that is virtually impossible to read.

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#6

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker You see these all the time in Japan. When I first saw this, I was like, what is going on? But schools will take kids in these carts or just on a stroll around the neighborhood.

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Huddo's sister
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have seen some childcare centres in Australia use these, but usually only for emergency evacuation drills. If the kids are walking age they are all given high-vis tops and walk, either holding hands or holding a rope, on short trips, like to the park or nursing home outings.

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#7

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker If the train is ever delayed in Japan, you get what's called a densha chien shoumeisho which is a certificate of lateness that the staff comes out with with a basket of them. The transportation is so good though that this like rarely ever happens. But if you're late to work or school, you have to have the certificate to prove it. I lived in New York for three years and we did not have that. If you were late it was - good luck.

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Will Cable
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I wish they did this in the UK. Things are so bad sometimes that even if you bought a UK based model train set it would be replaced by a bus!

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#8

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker If you go to the movies in Japan, and the movie ends, Japanese people just sit through the entire credits in silence. I feel like some people do this in America. But I think for the most part, people just get up and leave. But you just have to sit and wait through the credits because you'll just have to move through everyone that's sitting in waiting.

ryanthetwat , Jake Hills Report

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#9

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker If you're a foreigner and like, conventionally attractive, it's very common to get scouted to be a hair model, especially if you're in places like Shibuya, Harajuku or Omotesando, but hairstylists will just run up to you and ask if they can cut your hair for free because they want like, models for their portfolio. And it's actually really, really common.

ryanthetwat , Adam Winger Report

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Linda Ellis
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My daughter was a model there at 2-3 years old. Did shoots for Baby Dior and YSL. She had gorgeous blonde curls. They loved it.

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#10

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker People in Japan will literally sleep anywhere. This is because the work culture in Japan is so bad. Some people work from 9 am all the way to 10 pm. So it's extremely common to see people sleeping on the train. Sometimes they'll even fall asleep on your shoulder, and they somehow just magically wake up at their stop.

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Ueda
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The guy on this picture is a drunk salary man. Not extremely common but happens.

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#11

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker Every single restaurant you go to, they will always give you what's called oshibori, which is just like a wet towel. Even like Starbucks gives you one. And they're so nice because sometimes a dry napkin isn't going to do it. It does waste more plastic, but honestly, I really love these towels.

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setsuriseikou
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Mind that they are for wiping your hands _before_ eating and not a substitute for dry paper napkins.

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#12

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker In Tokyo, we have something called a Shibuya meltdown, which is when men, mostly salarymen, spend all day working so they go to Shibuya after work just to drink and they'll fall asleep anywhere in Shibuya. It's because the last train in Japan is at 12 o'clock so if you stay past that time, you have to stay until 5 am when the trains run again, so people will just fall asleep. They're literally anywhere. If you're up early enough and you go to Shibuya, you'll likely see someone just sleeping in the most random places until they wake up and go home or sometimes just go straight to work.

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#13

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker 80% of the apartments that you look at when looking for an apartment to rent will not let you live there because you're a foreigner. A lot of the time, even if you speak Japanese, they still won't let you live there. So out of 10 of the apartments that you like, only two of them will be available for you. I would send my realtor a list of 20 apartments. And she'd be like, “Yeah, this one and this one said that you can live here.”

ryanthetwat , Mylène Larnaud Report

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Linda Ellis
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They're extremely racist and nationalist. I taught English and I heard about a black woman who tried to teach English but the people walked out on her. Even If a kid is half Japanese and half white he'll het bullied or even another type of Asian. My kids went to an International School and lots of parents there had that problem. Of course this was 35 years ago. Maybe it's different now but I doubt it. I know young men love Asian girls and go there trying to find a girlfriend. It's pretty rare that would happen.

Cthulhu Kitty
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They still are. It's a closed off society. If your mixed at all, your "other" doesn't matter if you are born there or not. America did not help by preventing alot of US military from bringing back wives or "war brides" in the 40s/50s etc. They broke up a lot of families. I never knew my grandfather cause of stupid policy and my mom didn't have a dad cause of it. They are still super racist. I had relatives visit from Japan to US and they actually hid from black people. It is shameful

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Ueda
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Once in Korea, an old dude wouldn't let me rent his flat because he thought I was American. I protested that I was French and he was fine after. Oh and try to rent privately when you're black or an Arab in France. You will be surprised. It's not 9 out of 10 of course, but it's definitely not 1 out of 10 either. Racism is everywhere sadly... Not defending Japan here. Just that it takes many white people to go there to realize that.

gerard julien
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

you're right about france but mostly in cities .Surprising Fact though : "Mixed Marriages Now Account For 27 Per Cent of Unions in France. UK : july 2014 : Nearly one in 10 couples are now ethnically mixed, according to an official analysis revealed today. According to 2015 comparisons from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, France had a higher percentage of so-called mixed marriages than the U.S (12%)., UK, Korea, Japan, Spain, Italy or Germany. France is now the country with the highest inflow of family migrants in Europe. the percentage of mixed-marriages in northern Europe, in countries such as Iceland, Sweden and Denmark vary between 11% and 16%."

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Salty.Hag
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's one thing I absolutely detest about Japan, their racism knows no boundaries. That was a tough pill to shallow. My friend Nori told me, "you will not go to Japan without me." He never wanted to tell me exactly why but that was it, extreme racism. Many are very kind and welcoming thou, MANY!

齊藤敦志
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Japanese law strongly guarantees the rights of lessees. Even if the lessees fails to pay the rent and flees to a foreign country, the lease contract is continued. Legal proceedings to terminate a contract is costly. Therefore, landlords screen lessees very strictly.

Carly Rivers
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There has been a severe shortage of rental properties in Vancouver which is preventing a chunk of workforce. They have been trying to overcome the ridiculous situation where a large number of properties are bought by overseas buyers and left empty; sometimes to be vandalised and used as squats. Empty houses means that people cannot live near work and must commute for very long times, properties are a fire and crime risk, and no one is paying local council taxes to support garbage, police, ambulances, sewers, etc. While there seems to be a large proportion of foreign buyers of a particular ethnicity it has no bearing. To bring this up it would be good to support it with the actual situation. Perhaps landlords in Japan have to pay more for local taxes and fees or insurance would be much higher. Again I'm playing devil's advocate here. I am in no way disputing the experiences of others owing to xenophobia. Sorry wasn't quite sure where to put this in the chain

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Telepathetic
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Right in the 1st line---- "..... not let you live there because you're a foreigner."

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Amy Taylor
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I live in Los Angeles. My house was built in 1947. I was given copies of the original deed and it stated that "no other races outside of the Caucasian race could own or occupy this property" Yikes.

Admiralu
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That was typical of many cities in the Jim Crow era. That and Sundown Towns.

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Lydia
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sad that racism can be so strong there. On the other hand, Asian people in Europe are very loud here when discriminated against (understandably !!). It just surprises me ( or actually it does not) , that it is okay to be racist until it hits home...and you are on the receiving end. To be clear; there should not be racism at all anywhere - anyhow...

Gustav Gallifrey
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yep. Racist as all get-out. But, let anything negative happen to a Japanese in another country, and their news crews are all over it, reporting it as another cruel incident of discrimination against Japanese.

Wendy Herman
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sounds just like a lot of upset white conservative guys, tbh. They are continually freaking out on Fox b/c it looks like they will Finally be forced to share the Power they've historically horded for only themselves.

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Dorothy Reiser
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Either you are Japanese or not. Being half Japanese, I was considered "not"

mkmkmk4
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've lived in Japan and moved more than 10 times and I've never been refused an apartment because I'm a foreigner. Statistics show that the percentage of people living in Japan who say they have been refused to rent is about 20%. And even Japanese people are sometimes refused to rent an apartment if they can't prove their income or if they don't have a guarantor.  Anyway, the 80% figure is obviously exaggerated and there is no such data. In addition, since this year, it is against the law in Canada for foreigners to buy a house, and this is not limited to Japan.

eame
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No, it's against the law for NON-RESIDENtS to buy in Canada. Foreigners, including foreign students, can buy houses in Canada. It's nothing to do with race.

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Steven Meyer
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I got a three bedroom house on the beach in Hyama Japan when I lived there. Even came with a driveway.

O.M.Miki
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They do this because it's a liability for them. If something happens to you and you can't communicate in Japanese or even read it - it's extremely dangerous. They also don't want to deal with the lack of communication problems that may arise.

Monica Lopez King (Moni)
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

After Nagasaki and Hiroshima I would not want to have the barbarians in my neighborhood either. Sorry. Not sorry

Carly Rivers
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Playing devil's advocate... I imagine people who lived through the nuclear bombing in Nagasaki and Hiroshima or put into internment camps in the US and Canada. There are significant cultural differences which may mean foreign people are seen as dirty/destructive/rude/loud/whatever. I wonder how this compares to rental availability to black people in the US in some places.

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#14

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker When you get an apartment in Japan, you have to pay something called “reikin”, which means key money. It's also called gift money. Because it's literally just a gift for your landlord for allowing to let you live there, which is equivalent to normally one month's rent, and you do not get that back. You're literally just saying thank you for letting me live here. Here is one month's rent and you can have it.

ryanthetwat , jun rong loo Report

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#15

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker This is what our gas stations look like. I want to say it's for safety because it doesn't have the pumps on the ground here. But I'm not too sure and some of them are so high up, they attach strings to be able to pull them down. But when I saw that for the first time, I was like, huh.

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#16

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker A lot of stuff in Japan is still paper-based so basically all of my bills, I still have to pay at the convenience store, like I get it in the mail and I have to take it to the convenience store to pay it and it has to be in cash. I think some places allow you to switch your bills to online now, but it's all in Japanese and kind of difficult to navigate.

ryanthetwat , Chanhee Lee Report

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Hphizzle
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I’ve managed to get it down to only having to pay one bill at the convenience store. Wooo!

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#17

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker Everyone in Japan has reusable towels at all times. It can be used for multiple reasons, but a lot of the time it's just used to dry your hands off after washing them. And yeah, we have the hand dryer things in bathrooms, but I swear every single one in Japan has been out of service since the beginning of the pandemic. They're not reopening those.

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Yu Pan
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's just handkerchiefs. The latest trend is to add the towel-like texture to the handkerchiefs. Hand dryers aren't as widely available as they are in US so it's just good hygiene to bring your own handkerchief. We used to have random handkerchief and tissue inspection at my elementary school every week.

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#18

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker It's tradition in Japan to get KFC on Christmas. I'm not joking, and they literally line up. December 25 is a whole different process for KFC in Japan. The reason they do this is because Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving but you can't get turkey in Japan. So they associate Americans with chicken, so it's been a tradition since I think the ‘80s to get chicken from specifically KFC on Christmas.

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#19

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker We do not have dryers in Japan, unless you're rich. Even when you're rich, it's like a combination washer and dryer, and it's really not that good. And also a lot of people's washers are on the balcony outside, like mine's out here and I have to hang all my clothes up and put them on this thing as well. And when it's cold outside, it sucks because drying your clothes takes so much longer than in the summer. And also, the pipe to your washer can freeze.

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#20

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker Just like getting an apartment, adopting a pet in Japan is also literally impossible. Even shelters where there are animals won't let you adopt. I got lucky because I found someone personally who was willing to rehome my cat that day. But yeah, if you're going to a shelter or something, good luck, because they're not going to let you adopt

ryanthetwat , Markus Winkler Report

#21

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker Tally marks are different here. Like in America, we write them 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. They don't do that here. And I don't know why I never knew that. No, because literally what is this? They write it like ichi ni san shi go and just keep adding it. I don't know why I simply did not know that other parts of the world did tallies differently.

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Elmo_from_hell
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In China too. The character正 is written in 5 strokes, so it’s perfect for counting

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#22

"Things In Japan That Would Send Americans Into A Coma": 22 Unexpected Japanese Customs That Surprised This TikToker People in Japan do not wash their hands in the bathroom and hear me out before you attack me. Obviously, this doesn't apply to everyone. But 95% of the time, what I see happen, they'll just go up to the sink, run it under the water for like one-second max, and then they'll just shake their hands off. Or they'll use reusable towels.

ryanthetwat , Ilona Frey Report

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