john lennon museum

The Super Arena houses the JOHN LENNON MUSEUM
all photos copyright Elton Suzuki/all rights reserved

The report of the John Lennon Museum where I first went on October 9.

I went to the John Lennon Museum with two Beatle friends of mine on October 9, 2000. It was the opening day of the museum. It was raining from the morning that day. The museum hours were 11:00 am thru 6:00 pm. I got to the museum at 9:30 am. There was already a darn long line-up of the waiting visitors. Again, there were quite a few reporters and TV cameramen covering the scenes. They were not only from Japan but also from abroad. That was amazing! For I could tell how much everybody had been talking about this first John Lennon museum in the world all over the world until then.

The line-up was so long that the visitors waiting in the line-up were not allowed to enter the bldg of the museum one after another when it was 11:00 am. The opening time was supposed to be 11:00 am. I.E. , the admission had to be regulated. Afterwards, the visitors in the line-up were divided by 70 people in order of arrival, and then finally allowed to enter the bldg of the museum by 70 people in turn every a few 10 minutes. Since I was not in the first 70 people, it was way past 11:00 am when I was able to enter the bldg of the museum finally. But it could not be helped. The ticket information was located on the 1st floor of the bldg. I went up by escalator up to the 4th floor. The museum in question is located on the 4th and 5th floor of the bldg.

First off, every visitor was supposed to watch a 7-minute short film in the small theatre shortly before entering the museum in question. The film skimmed through the life of John Lennon, specially organized by Yoko for the museum, with the pictures of John Lennon and John Lennon songs as the background music. The visitors were supposed to pass through the entrance of the museum finally after they watched the short film. I entered the museum finally. The exhibition was organized on yet larger scale than the other Beatles exhibitions and the other John Lennon exhibitions which had been held in Tokyo thus far and I had been to. There was no comparison, in particular, in that the exhibition of the JL museum was better organized, i.e, for instance, almost all the descriptions were bilingual, Japanese and English so that even non-Japanese who reads English would be able to understand the descriptions. In other words, the museum was very international. I would speak highly of that point. Of course I saw quite a few non-Japanese visitors there. The world will be as one! Again, I could tell that a lot of money had been invested in founding the museum.

The exhibits were not only relevant to John but to Yoko. For instance, Yoko artwork, Telephone Piece, i.e., a white telephone was displayed. Interesting to say, there was no description of the purpose of the telephone in front of the white telephone. The white telephone was just placed there. Those who don't know about the work will never know what the telephone means. But the newspaper article of Oct. 9 covering the JL museum mentioned this 'White Telephone' going that Yoko may possibly call this White Telephone out of the blue from New York, but Yoko says that it is not a very good idea for anybody to wait for her call in front of the telephone all day.

The movie called 'Gimme Some Truth' was shown on the large screen, where John was rehearsing with Yoko and the other musicians in the music studio in the mansion, Tittenhurst in Ascot.

Just near where the movie was shown, there was a large panel showing the lyrics of Imagine on the background of the picture of John singing Imagine playing the white ground piano. And just near that, there was Yoko's exhibit of the white chess called 'Play It By Trust'. And just in front of that, there was the lyrics of Imagine actually handwritten by John. It was obvious that the point of those exhibits was that the world will be as one, which brought home to me. Another exhibit that caught my eye was a white ground piano in the white room, which was not a real piano but an imitation of a piano (for the lid of the piano couldn't be opened), on which there were quite a few private pictures of John, Yoko, Sean, Mimi, and Julia etc... Among them, I found the picture of John wearing the Greeting Committee T-shirt which is said to be John's favourite picture.

Further way, there was the spacious white room called 'Words by John Lennon'. There were numerous snippets from John Lennon lyrics shown on the very large crystal board in the centre of the white room. And the Japanese translation of the snippets were shown on the large white board. And there were a number of crystal chairs in the room. I felt in comfort sitting on the crystal chair in the spacious white room. However long I was on the chair in the room, I wouldn't feel bored.

The next room was, say, a message room. In the room, everyone was able to write a message to Yoko and post it to one of the crystal boxes. I wrote a congratulatory message to Yoko for her hard work for founding this great museum on schedule on October 9, 2000.

Where we got out of the museum, there was the Museum Shop. Tons of John and Yoko goods and Beatles goods were for sale at the shop. Real autographs, lithographs, Museum guidebooks, and what not were. I bought a Museum guidebook. This guidebook is bilingual, Japanese and English. And also, there was the Museum Cafe which imitates the cafe of Mampei Hotel where John and Yoko would stay back in '70's. But the cafe was too crowded that day for us to enter because it was the opening day. We went back to the 1st floor where there was a ticket information of the Museum. Another Beatle friend of mine that was late that day to come joined us and I taped each one of us giving a congratulatory message for Yoko with the digital video camera so that I would make a copy on a tape and send the tape to Yoko at Dakota House in New York in the immediate future.

I would like to GET BACK to the museum in the very near future. Thank you. E. Suzuki Nov. 14, 2000