One way of showcasing your country to the world is to open a cultural hub. A place to nurture a deeper understanding and appreciation of your nation in the international community, a focus of enrichment to communicate your countless charms to the rest of the world. That's what Japan have done with a trio of hubs across three continents, one in Los Angeles, one in Sao Paulo and one on Kensington High Street. Turn right out of the tube station... M&S, H&M, Japan House.
Each hub features an exhibition space, a multi-purpose space with theater facilities, a retail space, food and drink, books, online connectivity, and a cafe space. The project merges together these functions, and the activities they enable, to introduce a variety of themes, in detail and with substance: the future of tradition, the passion of popular culture, the power of advanced technology, and the diverse appeal of Japanese food. Activities are designed to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, including those with no previous interest in Japan.
Japan House isn't a new building, rather a beautifully-converted shop. Until recently it was a Gap, and if you go way back, the corner of Derry & Toms. What it reminded me of was a small Apple store - open plan, tables of product, white and black decor, and a sleek spiral staircase corkscrewing down the centre. It's free to enter. The doorman is unfailingly polite. The counter immediately inside the entrance sells matcha tea. You'd expect nothing less.
Beyond the caff (and the comfy chairs), the rear half of the ground floor forms the shop. It's stocked not with Hello Kitty t-shirts but a curated collection of design-led manufactured goods (or as the Japanese call it, monozukuri). Everything oozes practicality and style. Goodies include bronze sake bowls, jointed wooden hangers, plaited bamboo boxes, kitchen graters and rainbow crayons. One manufacturer has brought over a complete set of accessories made from brown paper, including shoes, purses and handbags. If money is tighter, target the tenugui - a set of colourful multipurpose cloths.
Another focus is art, the inaugural exhibitor being architect Sou Fujimoto. Upstairs, as a kind of window display, he's stuck various household objects on plinths and called it 'Architecture is Everywhere'. A handful of Pringles ("layering hills is architecture"). A skew pile of matchboxes ("separating and connecting"). An upside-down glass ashtray ("a cave turned into architecture"). An upturned kitchen scourer ("people live in nooks and crannies"). It's all appallingly pretentious and yet somehow, as serendipitous inspiration goes, rather great.
A lot more of Sou's models are in the proper gallery downstairs. Some are just sugar lumps with leaves on, or slanting multi-coloured glass bricks, or interwoven paper strips, and hardly practical. But other ideas have been worked up into potential buildings, like a spiral library or a web of rising staircases, and his tower of petal-like apartments destined for Montpelier looks amazing. Light and delicate, and uncommonly creative, you have until 5th August to peruse the assembled mini-structures.
Also downstairs is a small library where you can read up on cherry blossom, cities and historic art. On the top floor is a proper sit-down restaurant, named after its chef Shimuzu Akira. And at the back of the ground floor is a very small travel centre, with free transport maps and travel brochures, assuming your visit to Japan House has inspired you to visit the real thing. It certainly won't have put you off.
There are more 53 year-olds in the UK than any other age group.
According to the latest figures, the population of the UK hit 66 million in the middle of last year.
At the time, there were 940,080 52 year-olds, comfortably ahead of those aged 50, 53 and 51.
Hence a year later, assuming we haven't all died or migrated, 53 must be the most common age group.
I never realised quite how commonplace I am.
Using the ONS's wonderfully detailed spreadsheet, and applying similar reasoning, here are the most common age groups in various parts of the country...
Every Londoner loves an Aperol Spritz, but free travel is even better.
So we were proper gobsmacked when we discovered the tube has a Hidden Secret Fare Zone, and you could be paying a lot less for your journey than you think!
The magic happens across the Zone One/Two boundary, in what we've creatively decided to call Zone One And A Half. And it only happens at peak times because, well, here comes the full rundown.
Every tube journey within Zone 1 costs £2.40, tops. Every journey between Zone 1 and Zone 2 also costs £2.40 during the off peak. But at peak times that Zone 1→2 journey shoots up to £2.90, a massive 20% extra... UNLESS your journey is in the hidden secret zone.
Imagine, for example, you're at Euston in the rush hour and you want to go to Mornington Crescent. The negronis at La Patagonia are enough reason for anyone, huh? Euston's in Zone 1 and Mornington Crescent's in Zone 2, so you'd expect the trip to cost £2.90. But TfL are kind because they know it's only one stop, so here's the rub, THEY ONLY CHARGE YOU £2.40.
They call these cheaper trips Short Distance Cross Boundary Journeys. Brief hops of a station or two, from one side of the dividing line to the other, which secretly cost you less. And £2.40 rather than £2.90's not to be sniffed at. That's a potential saving of £1 a day, or £20 a month, which is easily enough to pay for your next Contactless Cheese Festival, or whatever.
Here's a map of the Secret Hidden Journeys you can make from Lambeth North.
Kennington in peak hours, £2.40. Oval in peak hours, £2.40. Not £2.90. And nobody tells you that.
Sometimes it's even better than that. Here's a map of the Secret Hidden Journeys you can make from Paddington. Wow.
You can go all the way down the Hammersmith & City line to Wood Lane for £2.40, for a proper full-on splashout at Westfield. You can go all the way up the Bakerloo line to Kilburn Park for £2.40, not that we can imagine why anyone would. And oddly you can zigzag down to Holland Park for £2.40, for a selfie in the Kyoto Garden, because sometimes changing line is OK too. TfL's amazing pricing computer just knocks off the discount automatically, without you even noticing.
And it works the other way round too, from Zone 2 into Zone 1. Here's a map of the Secret Hidden Journeys you can make from Camden Town.
Blimey, who'd have thought? Camden Town to King's Cross and the Eustons you might have expected. But Camden Town to Oxford Circus is miles, and that's only £2.40 in the rush hour, ditto Tottenham Court Road. But not Holborn, because that would be pushing it, nor Angel, which still costs £2.90 even though it's only three stops away. That flash-grilled avocado taco at Wahaca will have to wait!
Finally here's a map of the Secret Hidden Journeys you can make from Whitechapel.
This is amazing. There are SIXTEEN Zone 1 stations you can travel to more cheaply from Whitechapel than TfL admit. All the way down the District line to Mansion House or up the Hammersmith & City to Farringdon. As far as St Paul's or Old Street or London Bridge via a change of train. The Overground and DLR get in on the act too, as cheaper fares to Shoreditch High Street and Tower Gateway confirm. Even a couple of short Crossrail journeys will be cheaper at the end of the year when the purple line kicks in. It's a Hidden Secret Bonanza!
Start one stop further out at Stepney Green and only five of these destinations get the cheaper treatment. Start at Mile End and there's only one, namely Aldgate East, and everywhere else in Zone 1 costs the full £2.90. But hey, that's still a lot better than nothing, and everyone loves something for nothing, QED.
Yes, we know, it's all very complicated. That's because there are 170 Secret Hidden Journeys altogether, so we can't even draw you a simple map. We could link to TfL's database of Short Distance Cross Boundary Journeys, obtained via a Freedom of Information request, but patronisingly we doubt you'll be able to understand it. Instead just look at our pretty pictures, and be wowed, and retweet this Utterly Amazeballs News wildly on social media.
TfL could be charging you 50p less for your tube journey this morning than you think. And if that isn't a good excuse for an extra strawberry in your Pimms, you're playing London wrong, right?
n.b. Short Distance Cross Boundary Journeys genuinely exist, honest, but are hidden and secret.
n.b. Short Distance Cross Boundary Journeys do not apply to stations on the boundary of Zones 1 and 2.
n.b. Short Distance Cross Boundary Journeys only exist between Zones 1 and 2, there are none further out.
n.b. Short Distance Cross Boundary Journeys can also be identified via the Single Fare Finder, but only if you think to look.
