Skip to main content

Cat fans, here’s a version of Street View just for you

cat street view japan
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Aware of many people’s penchant for pussycats, Hiroshima’s tourist office last year happened upon the genius idea of launching a “Cat Street View” service, showing the local town of Onimichi from the low-down perspective of one of its furry inhabitants.

Presumably the online tool was a hit, as it’s just posted similar Street View-style content for a second location in the neighboring town of Takehara, Rocket News reported.

Just like the original Cat Street View, the latest imagery invites you to explore the picturesque neighborhood – known as “Little Kyoto” for its resemblance to the preserved parts of Japan’s ancient capital – from the perspective of local kitty Souseki.

Using the “paw” cursor to make your way around, you’re encouraged to track down 27 other local cats, with a special counter keeping tabs on how many you manage to find.

If you hear a faint “miaow” sound, you’ll know one’s close by. Drag the immersive imagery around to locate it, then click on the various icons to find out more about your new buddy, or view a short YouTube video showing it going about its day in Little Kyoto (much time is spent lazing around under cars, evidently).

A map at the bottom left of the display shows the streets that’ve been mapped, and also offers clues as to where you’ll find all the other cats hanging out.

And no, you won’t be prowling only the streets. Follow the helpful on-screen markers and you’ll be taken to parts of the district more familiar to its feline residents than its human ones: the roofs.

It’s not clear if Hiroshima tourist office’s innovative Cat Street Vew efforts have helped to increase foot traffic (human foot traffic, that is) in the tourist locations or merely given cat fans a few minutes of online fun, but either way, it’s an innovative effort at putting the Japanese towns on the map.

To begin your Cat Street View adventure, click here.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Google’s Street View cars are helping build a giant map of global air pollution
Google wants to map the world's air quality. Here's how.
Google Street View Vehicle equipped with pollution tracking tech

You’re out on your first jog in more than a week. You’ve been running for maybe a half hour when you’re suddenly overcome by a shortness of breath. Your chest feels strangely tight, and as you breath you emit an odd rasping, wheezing noise. Is it your fitness level that’s faltering, you wonder, or could there be some external reason your body is responding like this.

You pull up Google Maps on your smartwatch. Along with a dot showing your present location, there’s also some contextual information about your surroundings, revealing that you’ve run into a section of town where air pollution levels are excessively high. Another app, drawing on this information and your own health data, suggests that the air quality levels might be triggering your asthma. With a couple of taps of the wrist, you reconfigure Google Maps and plot a route that will take you home via some parks where clean air is in ready supply.

Read more
How to pin a website to the taskbar in Windows
A man sits, using a laptop running the Windows 11 operating system.

Windows includes many interesting tools, but if you’re like many people, more and more of your digital life is happening in your web browser and nowhere else. That being the case, you’ll want to keep your most important websites close at hand. The easiest way to access them in Windows is the Start menu and the taskbar, treating them more or less like programs in and of themselves.

Although easy overall, getting a website from your browser to your taskbar is slightly different depending on which browser you’re using.

Read more
Amazon’s Big Spring sale: Save on TVs, laptops, appliances, and more
Amazon Big Spring sale promo image

Deal hunter or not, you'll be pleased to know that Amazon's Big Spring sale is officially underway. It's your opportunity to save on a slew of buzzworthy deals, including TVs, laptops, appliances, various electronics, and much more. It shows that you don't always have to wait for Amazon's Prime Day to capitalize on fantastic discounts. If you've been holding off on buying something, hoping for a great deal, now's the time to pull the trigger. Because the sale is so massive, we've gathered a few of our top picks below. However, we still recommend browsing the sale to see what you can find.

 
What to shop in the Amazon Big Spring sale
For starters, if you want a new tablet, Samsung, Lenovo, and Google during the sale. The Galaxy Tab A9+ is available for 19% to 23% off. Meanwhile, Google's Pixel Tablet is 19% to 25% off, depending on the model. Samsung's , and its gaming monitor is down to $140, usually $190. Or, the beautiful and much larger curved gaming monitor is $700, normally $1,300.

Read more