outside of north america, how do world maps look like?

[majabl]

On a side note. It seems that the Japanese usually don't consider themselves to be Asians, as when a Japanese visits China or Mongolia, they will mention that they visited Asia for the first time. (I saw this many times on a video of a Japanese artists that are having a tour in China)

This is island-nation mentality. We say the same here in the UK of Europe. It's not that we don't consider ourselves European, just that the European landmass is viewed a little differently to our own soil.

By the way, I was taught your 7-continent view. The South American one seems odd - why treat North and South America as one continent but not Europe and Asia?

[SemiExpert]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IERS_Reference_Meridian An Englishman, John Harrison, invented the first reliable maritime chronometer, which allowed for the accurate calculation of longitude at sea - hence the prime meridian which passes through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. It's a simple matter of maritime history.

[haqking]

dont matter what map you use. long and lat and UTM stay the same