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Design

Cats Now Have Their Own Google Maps

Cartography? More like cat-ography (the audience dies laughing).

Screencaps via

Too long has Google Maps confined us to the perspective of a camera attached to the top of a Subaru, at roughly human's eye level. Thankfully, an app now gives you the perspective of a cat. Hiroshima Prefecture launched a street viewing application on Tuesday that allows visitors to explore the narrows halls of an outdoor shopping arcade in Onimochi, a town roughly 40 miles east of Hiroshima, from this fresh vantage point.

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Alongside the businesses and landmarks normally explored through Google Maps, the new program introduces 11 local celebrity cats scattered around the area, offering a short bio and accompanying pictures of each new friend.

The Prefecture captured Hiroshima Cat Street View with a 360-degree camera lens (similar to those on Google Maps Camera Cars), recording three different local paths for you to explore. According to the Wall Street Journal, the port town was chosen because of its large number of cats, and a museum dedicated to Japan’s maneki-neko cat dolls.

The tourism board hopes to “add more locations to the map in October, including the Misode Shrine area in Onomichi.”

Be a cat on the map here.

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