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Travel through time with these old maps from the Zenrin Virtual Museum

While the average human has not yet come unstuck in time, it doesn’t mean we’re completely at a loss when it comes to time travel. Yes, we may only move in a singular direction, but at least have artifacts from the past to help us look back! Everything from old photos to old pottery help us dig through our murky cultural memory to see how things used to be.

And, thanks to Zenrin, a Japanese mapping company based in Oita Prefecture, now you can travel internationally with their collection of digital maps from the Edo and Meiji periods. Whether you think England is a conspiracy of cartographers or you know the name of every mapmaker since Babylonia, there’s something here for everyone!

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While the vast majority of Japan’s population is crammed onto its four largest islands, Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Hokkaido, the country’s territories extend much farther out to sea. For example, if you head about 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) south of downtown Tokyo, you’ll come to the Ogasawara Islands, one of Japan’s most remote settlements.

We’ve talked about the Ogasawaras before, and how their beautiful ocean scenery has been helping to attract tourists (and perhaps even a new chef), to the archipelago. Recently, though, the islands have been seeing an increasing number of extremely unwelcome visitors, in the form of ships coming from China to poach coral.

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Foreigners buying from Japan get free stuff?! But not all buyers are impressed

With the Internet being what it is today, you can talk to, look at pictures of, even buy things from people all over the world. It’s pretty amazing, really. But, as with all international exchanges, sometimes there are some cultural misunderstandings going on across the Interwebs.

One Reddit user, unsure of how to react, recently posted a picture of a letter that he received with his package from an eBay seller in Japan. In addition to the following, very polite and sincere-sounding letter, in pretty good English, the seller included a free gift!

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Should we call this snoring, talking Totoro plush toy cute or awesome? Either way, we want one

While in Los Angeles to accept an honorary award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, famed director Hayao Miyazaki mentioned that he has a new anime in the works, giving his fans around the globe huge smiles and racing pulses.

With no production timetable yet in place, though, we’re in for a bit of a wait until we can see the new anime. No one’s sure exactly how long that wait is going to be, but it’s probably going to be long enough that maintaining the level of excitement caused by Miyazaki’s comment isn’t going to be good for your heart. So if a few deep breaths aren’t enough to calm you down, we recommend taking a few moments to relax with this adorable Totoro stuffed animal that naps and murmurs in its sleep, just like the anime film original.

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Japanese Naruto fans to get every episode, issue for free via new iPhone/Android app

Even if you’re not an anime fan, you’ve no doubt heard that the hugely popular ninja series Naruto has finally reached its climax after more than 15 years. It’s never fun when a beloved show or serial comes to an end, and fans are often left searching for something new to fill the void in their lives that opens up when they do, but when you have a back-catalogue as rich and extensive as Naruto‘s, revisiting older instalments is sure to provide hours, if not weeks of pleasure.

Which, it seems, it precisely what Naruto‘s publisher is hoping both diehard fans and latecomers alike will do next, and is providing them with free issues of the manga and anime episodes direct to their smartphones via a brand new app for iOS and Android.

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This video of models dancing to a Taiwanese pop song is so horrible it’s genius

Models, a tiger-head backpack, and one confused Kim Jong-un impersonator–it’s not exactly a list of participants to inspire confidence when it comes to “fan-made” dance videos. Notice the lack of anyone with solid dancing skills here. While we’re sure that all of the folks that appear dancing in this video set to the Chinese hit “Memeda” by Lin Meixi and Xia Wenxi have their own unique talents, it is immediately obvious that moving in a rhythmic fashion in unison is not one of them…

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  • Nov 10, 2014

Let bread brighten your day — with these unique lamps made from real bread!

What’s this? At first glance, it looks like a picture of some bread, and very tasty-looking golden brown bread too. But wait, is the bread … glowing? Is it some trick of the eye, or is there something seriously wrong with the bread? Well, neither, in this case. This eye-catching item, found by one of the reporters at our sister site Pouch, is actually a lamp, so it’s supposed to glow. What makes the product unique, though, is that it’s made from real bread! Join us for a look at the different types of bread that have been turned masterfully into a light source!

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Japanese viewers help the CSI: NY team unravel a murder… With basic vocabulary… YEEEAAAAAHHHH!

We now join CSI: New York Season 8, Episode 17: Unwrapped already in progress…

Dr. Sheldon Hawkes is busy trying to piece together fragments of a porcelain figure recovered by detectives Messer and Flack. With any luck this figure may be a clue to the mysterious murder of Kelvin Moore, a successful accountant who was trying to give back to his community.

When the figure is complete they find it’s in the shape of a cat. Not only that, it has a strange symbol on the bottom that no one on their team nor all of their technology can appear to decipher.

It’s at this point that viewers in Japan start screaming at their TVs, “It’s NEKO ya dummies!”

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Choose your own toaster at the specialty toast restaurant in Tokyo

There’s a lot of freedom and innovation when it comes to dining in Japan. For every Michelin-starred restaurant in Tokyo, there’s an equally impressive place where you can dine with maids, hang out with cats or even watch boys make out.

Now there’s another must-visit eatery to add to Tokyo’s ever-growing list of unique cafes and this time the star of the show is the humble slice of bread. At Centre the Bakery in Ginza, you can choose your own toaster, take it back to your table and enjoy freshly made toast.

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Premium Cocorobo will clean your floor, wake you up, and probably creep out your friends

While a cranky Roomba can make a terrible mess, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we should never allow robots into our homes–only that we probably ought to be careful about how much we trust them. For example, letting them vacuum your floor seems reasonable, but relying on a vacuum bot to wake you up might not be such a great idea. And giving your vacuum bot a cute anime voice and something resembling a personality? That’s how humans end up extinct!

But apparently Sharp needs to watch more Terminator films, because that is exactly the kind of vacuuming robot they’ve created!

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Twitter user captures raccoon doing a funny “feed me!” dance at Nagasaki Zoo

One lucky visitor to a zoo in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan was treated to quite the show when she witnessed a raccoon standing on its hind legs and doing a little dance in anticipation of its next meal. Luckily for us, she was able to share pictures of the spectacle over a short series of tweets, one of which has been retweeted over 11,000 times in the last two days! Keep reading for your daily fix of cuteness.

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Let’s say you love looking at the moon. You’re enchanted by its beautifully full and round shape, and sometimes you find it so enticing you’d like to reach out and touch it (with its permission, of course).

But all that ardent admiration still doesn’t mean you actually know anything about the moon, does it?

That’s not too far from the relationship some men have with women’s breasts, according to this list of 11 things Japanese women wish more men understood about their chests.

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This rice omelet, grilled eel, oden, and fried pork are actually cakes! We try them all

We previously ran an article about Maplies, a bakery in Shinjuku that excels in the art of making cake look exactly like Chinese food, namely gyoza, ramen (salt or soy sauce), and tenshindon.

About a year has past since then and our reporter Mr. Sato had a sudden hankering for some cake that looked like egg, crab meat, and rice. He headed down to Maplies only to be shocked at what he found. The bakery had added a whole new assortment of cakes that look exactly like other foods!

Needless to say he bought one of each and brought them back to the office for a taste of pure confusion.

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Cat can haz 100 yen goodz? Purr-fect things for cats found for cheap!【Photos】

Cats rule the Internet. Anyone who spends any time there knows that. Whatever situation you come across online, you are sure to find an appropriate, or inappropriate, response in the form of a cat meme. All cat owners know that this behavior of claiming everything to be their own isn’t a new phenomenon. Cats think “what’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine.” If there is anything inside their living space (anywhere the light touches), it’s theirs. Never one to stop and ask permission, a cat just does what it wants!

In Japan, cat owners have been noticing that their cats really seem to like items bought from a particular store. Fortunately for the owners, that store is a handy place where you can buy 10 things for around $10. That’s right, it’s the 100 Yen Store!

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Mr Sato invents ingenious “life hack” for sneaking alcohol at work

Picture the scene. It’s 5pm on a Friday evening and you really, REALLY need (and deserve) a cold beer to reward yourself after a hard week’s work. But what’s that? Oh no! The boss wants you to do overtime!? Argh!

If this scenario sounds like the ninth circle of hell to you, fret not! RocketNews24 is here to bring you a genius new “life hack” which will enable you to achieve a state of blissful inebriation right underneath the boss’s nose, without even having to leave your desk! (Disclaimer: RocketNews24 is not responsible for any loss of earnings or reputation that may result from practicing this “experiment”. This post is for entertainment purposes only. Ahem.) Okay, Mr Sato, let’s see how it’s done!

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NHK’s US election banner has netizens wondering if it’s the new Street Fighter

Last week’s US midterm elections drew the attention of the whole world, including Japan. NHK covered the whole spectacle in detail, but the usually serious broadcaster went with a bizarrely cartoonish, over-dramatic banner that showed America’s most senior politicians looking like characters in a beat-’em-up game a la Street Fighter.

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The secret lives of stationery unveiled! What happens when a pencil and eraser wed?【Video】

Have you ever twirled a pencil between your fingers, drawn on an eraser, or chewed on a pencil? Most of us have done at least one, if not all, of the above-mentioned things when we were in school. But have you ever considered the feelings of these objects? If inanimate objects had any feelings, that is…and we bet you can’t guess what happens when a pencil and an eraser tie the knot! See the humorous vid after the jump!

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Artist dad doodles over snaps of baby boy with adorable results【Photos】

Meet Khoi, an adorable baby boy whose father, art director Quan Hoang, has a hobby of doodling over drawings of his son in a variety of whimsical styles. Under the skillful touch of daddy’s pen, little Khoi becomes anything you could imagine, from Indiana Jones to Hulk Hogan to Harry Potter, and more! Check out these super-cute pictures to see the many transformations of Khoi!

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Gunma-chan candy is adorable, probably as sweet as the mascot’s national championship

Gunma-chan, Gunma Prefecture’s regional mascot, or yuru-kyara, may not have the most creative name. The cap-wearing horse more than makes up for that shortcoming with cuteness, though, and was recently named the winner of the nationwide Yuru-Kyara Grand Prix popularity contest.

The championship is the culmination of a long campaign for Gunma-chan, who finished in 18th place in 2011, before spending two years stalled in the number three spot.

Having now reached the top of the yuru-kyara world, it’s time for Gunma-chan to savor the sweet taste of victory, and time for everyone else to savor the sweet taste of Gunma-chan candy.

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Wrap up your holiday gifts with Sailor Moon paper goods

Gift giving season is around the corner and what better way to wrap up the mounds of Moonie merchandise than with Sailor Moon cards, gift bags, decorative tape, and boxes? All the above andmore are available for order as part of Bandai’s fourth round of Sailor Moon paper goods. Let’s take a look.

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