John Lennon Museum

Aya and I went to the John Lennon museum located in Saitama last weekend. It was really cool. The price to get in is not much, I think it cost us 1,300yen for the both of us and we got a discount because we were married, funny. Although most items in the museum have a Japanese explanation accompanying them, a great deal of them also have English which was really nice. Also, even though it was a Saturday, there were not many people in the museum and at times we were entirely alone.
The items in the museum and the set up itself is pretty cool. Room by room you go through the objects and stories of John’s life starting from his early years all the way to his death. I was very impressed with the amount of authentic objects in the museum from guitars to glasses, to art and signatures, to his report cards and diary. We were asked not to take pictures and I obeyed, mostly, one picture I could not resist and that is the one above, John’s report card!
The overall feeling of the museum was great, it really gave me the impression of actually understanding the years passing and progression from one thing to another. It gave me a much greater perspective on John’s life. I even learned that he visited Japan a number of times and kept a journal with pictures for learning Japanese, that was really cool. There were also many photos and objects from other personal moments and I felt the most moved when viewing objects from the 5 years when John took off to care for Sean.
If you are in the Tokyo area and are a Lennon fan I would highly recommend this place. If you are just a casual tourist I would still recommend it, but only if you have ample time to see other Tokyo places first.