All You Need Is Love

Hi everybody! Last Saturday we took the train up to Saitama City (Tokyo) to visit the John Lennon Museum with our friends Mika and Mikio. Now I had been wanting to visit this place for a long time considering I am a huge life-long fan of all things Beatle. This museum was created by Yoko Ono, as Saitama City is her hometown, and officially opened on 09 October 2000, Lennon's 60th birthday. The museum is located in a huge arena/exhibit hall called Saitama Super Arena. Multiple concerts and other events are held up there all throughout the year. We hadn't made it up there until this point because it's a good 90 minute trip one way. So, we made plans with our friends to stay over night with them since they live in that area. The museum was very interesting and well-worth the trip and admission (¥1,500 for adults). On hand were multiple personal possessions of Lennon's, including a pair of his famous glasses, his leather jacket from the early-Beatles' days in Hamburg, his sleeveless "New York City" tee-shirt, his second-hand Army jacket, his motorcycle given to him by Beatles' manager Brian Epstein, and my personal favorite, his fluorescent yellow St. Pepper costume used for the album cover photo. The exhibit is divided into nine zones, as follows:

Zone 1: Childhood Memories - John's childhood explained under 4 keywords - birth, separation, talent, and rebellion.
Zone 2: Rock & Roll - The time when young John was playing rock 'n roll in Liverpool and Hamburg.
Zone 3: The Beatles - John's success as a member of the Beatles and his inner changes and turmoil.
Zone 4: Two Virgins - John's first meeting with Yoko, Yoko's childhood and her artwork.
Zone 5: Love & Peace - John and Yoko's peace campaign, and later works by the Beatles.
Zone 6: Imagine - John's solo works, centrally the world of the song "Imagine"
Zone 7: New York City - The time when John and Yoko moved to New York and joined in political activities.
Zone 8: The Lost Weekend - The time when John split up with Yoko and lived in Los Angeles.
Zone 9: Househusband - John's "househusband" era, and his comeback on the music scene.

Though the museum was not crowded at all, cameras and other recording devices are forbidden from use in the exhibit. So all of the photos I've posted are from the entrance of the museum. Being that this exhibit was created by Yoko Ono, it definitely has her slant on things, which is ok depending on how you feel about her and her involvement with (the breakup of) The Beatles. I have mixed feelings, but I think people tend to really hate her or respect her. I didn't know until this exhibit that she was married twice prior to meeting John, first time to a Japanese classical composer and second time to an American Jazz musician whom she had a child by. The child, Kyoko, is now married with kids and living in Denver, Colorado. Yoko was also romantically linked at one time with experimental musician John Cage. So there's always been that artist-musician thing going on there. Also, I didn't know that John whored around with Yoko's personal assistant, May Pang, for 18 months during his "Lost Weekend". So I guess he had a thing for the Asian ladies (right on!). There was nothing else I saw in the exhibit was news to me, as I have seen multiple documentaries about him and The Beatles, but overall I was really pleased to see it and highly recommend it to any other Beatles fans out there.

By the way, I am the walrus.