After a couple of months of disruption, the £5 million  ‘Japanese style crossing’ has finally opened in Oxford Circus. Most boring blogpost ever? Bear with me…

It’s called ‘Japanese style’ because you can cross in basically any direction and is inspired by the famous crossing in Shibuya, Tokyo. Observe:

Now I have been to Shibuya, and it is indeed amazing to watch the crossing in action – it almost seems there is  a forcefield of courtesy around every person as no one pushes, no one rushes and people barely touch. Amazing. Naturally my brother and I lumbered through as inexpertly as a pair of three legged dogs trying to chase a flock of geese, but what else could you expect from a couple of genetically clumsy and flat footed gajin?

Anyway with ‘the bang of a gong’ (and the collective shudder of  most Londoners one suspects) Mayor Boris Johnson declared the crossing open. Now I am never one to be negative, but I fear our approach to road etiquette might be slightly different to the Japanese.. indeed, if you watch the video below from about 00.53 and pretend that Scar actually says “Mufasa! Quick! Simba left his purse in Topshop’s changing rooms and wants to meet you outside Hennes!” Then this might be a closer picture of how things will go down: