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If you happen to be looking for directions around Mitaka Station in Musashino, Tokyo you might be in for an eerie surprise. As Google’s Street View camera strapped to a guy’s back passed through the quaint tree-lined path alongside the Tamagawa Aqueduct, it was momentarily surrounded by a group of people standing around wearing pigeon heads.

This is your Throwback Thursday article of the week, your peek into the archives of RocketNews24 featuring articles from back when our site was just getting started. Enjoy this blast from the past! 

You can either explore the scene for yourself here, or follow the pictures underneath if you have any accessibility problems.

Approaching the flock you can see an unusual arrangement of people but nothing to strange until one more click and…

Gyaaa!

One more click forward and you’re out of the flock.

Until you turn around and see them staring at you from behind.

Finally, just as the bird people are completely out of sight, the guy appears to have tripped, probably shaken from his encounter.

This team of pigeons was actually made up of writers from the blog Daily Portal Z who caught word that Google’s cameras would be in the area. They wanted to be on Street View but wanted to be easily distinguishable without having their faces blurred.

It’s great that the team got to fulfill their hopes of getting on Street View, but this whole event has highlighted something unsettling about Japan. Giant pigeons masks are way too easy to get around here.

Source: Daily Portal Z, Google Maps via Naver Matome (Japanese)