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The last four years of John Lennon’s life were notable for the amount of time he spent in Japan. Taking a break from music, the former Beatle committed himself to raising Sean. And he sought to learn more about the country where his muse, Yoko Ono, was born. (1/11)
Before spending the summer of 1977 in Japan, Lennon spent eight weeks at a Berlitz school in Manhattan learning Japanese, according to biographer Philip Norman in “John Lennon: The Life” https://www.nytimes.com/1976/07/28/archives/john-lennon-wins-his-residency-in-us.html (2/11)
Lennon had a talent for cartoons ever since he was a not-so-motivated student at the Liverpool College of Art. Images remained a key element of his music (“picture yourself in a boat on a river”). And for learning Japanese. (3/11)
Lennon’s summers in Tokyo were spent at the Okura Hotel, where he could usually be found in the pool, or the Bar Highlander. Ueno Zoo was always a popular destination.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-09-12/okura-tokyo-hotel-reopens-after-1-billion-makeover-photos (4/11)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-09-12/okura-tokyo-hotel-reopens-after-1-billion-makeover-photos (4/11)
John and Yoko would escape the summer heat and humidity by heading to Karuizawa, a resort northeast of the metropolis, and stay at the Mampei Hotel. The former Beatle was a frequent customer at Cafe de Minoriya and a fan of their vanilla soft-serve ice cream. (5/11)
Not just ice cream, but plain meals. His illustration seems to suggest he was “always” eating rice, miso and vegetables. If you look closely at the picture of him at a restaurant, there’s an empty bowl of Oginoya’s Kamameshi https://www.oginoya.co.jp/ (6/11)
Yoko’s relatives were frequent visitors in Tokyo and Karuizawa, leading to sometimes bizarre scenes like this one, which could have come out of my own family album. (7/11)
By all accounts, John got along well with his mother in law Isoko. Through her, Yoko was a descendant of the Yasuda zaibatsu. (8/11)
Working class hero John Lennon ended up with an indelible link to one of Japan’s richest families. The zori sandals are a nice touch. (9/11)
In Lennon’s notebook, he drew the fictional Industrial Product Company, with the rubric “(developing) industrial nation.” By 1977, Japan already had the world’s second-largest GDP, an annual $721 billion. “A working class hero is something to be.” (10/11)
John Lennon would return to Tokyo every summer. But in 1980 he didn’t make the trip to work on Double Fantasy, his first album in five years. It was released in November of that year. He was killed on Dec. 8. (11/11)
