John Lennon’s Serene Days in Karuizawa

I made a pilgrimage to Karuizawa, a place associated with John Lennon, on August 7th and 8th, 2025.

Introduction

There are places in the world where history is not shouted from monuments, but whispered in silence.

For John Lennon, that place was Karuizawa, a mountain town in Nagano, Japan.

Here, away from the noise of fame and the shadows of the past, he found a rare gift — serenity.

1. A Journey to Peace

After the storm of Beatlemania and the restless years that followed, Lennon sought more than fame or rebellion.

He longed for a place where he could rediscover himself.

John has visited Japan five times, first as part of The Beatles in 1966 and again in 1970 to meet Ono family.

After giving birth to Sean in 1975, John spent three years (1977–1979) visiting Karuizawa, which was meant to become his second home, with Yoko and Sean during the summer. Karuizawa, with its quiet streets and gentle mountains, became a sanctuary where he could breathe freely.

・May 11th-October 7th, 1977 (approximately five months, mainly in Tokyo, Karuizawa, and Kyoto)

*Upon leaving Japan, John declared at a press conference on October 4th that he would “devote himself to being a house husband until Sean was about five years old,” and embarked on a life of seclusion.

・June 5th-September 16th, 1978 (approximately three months, mainly in Tokyo and Karuizawa)

・July 28th-August 28th, 1979 (approximately one month, mainly in Karuizawa)

2. Pilgrimage Through Green Silence

To wander through Karuizawa is to step softly into Lennon’s summer days. The town itself becomes a gentle guide, leading you from one quiet memory to another.

At the historic Mampei Hotel, Lennon found both comfort and anonymity. Even today, its timbered halls and quiet lounge seem to echo with the sound of a piano that he once touched, or the silence of afternoons when he sketched while Yoko read nearby.

Manpei Hotel

Hotel Lobby

Piano John played

Walking or cycling beneath the cedar-lined paths, one senses why Lennon was drawn to this place. The green hush of the forest recalls the outskirts of Liverpool, yet more tender, more forgiving. Among these trees, fame could not chase him. Only the rhythm of the wind remained.

Courtyard Grove

Path to the Hotel

Villa to the Hotel

Main Entrance of the Villa

Ono Family Villa

Along Kyu-Karuizawa Ginza Street, he once strolled with his family, stopping for bread or ice cream, delighting in ordinary moments. Imagine the scene: a man the world adored, blending quietly into the crowd.

Bakery Shop

Mikado Coffee Shop

View of the street from Mikado’s second floor terrace

His favorite Moka Soft Cream

Further along, the hills open into distant views at Usui Pass, where mountains stretch endlessly toward the horizon. To stand there is to understand the freedom Lennon must have felt, pedaling his bicycle into the vast, unbroken sky.

Usui Pass Observatory

At the Japanese Noodle Restaurant

Shigenoya Soba Restaurant

Kumano Shrine

Multi-story tower in the grounds where he prayed

3. A Heart Centered on Love

In Karuizawa, Lennon was not a legend but simply a man with his family. The birth of Sean had transformed him, prompting what he once called a “housecleaning of the heart.”

For the first time in years, he chose to live for the small, unremarkable moments that matter most.

Walking hand in hand with Yoko and Sean along shaded forest paths, or sharing meals at a modest table, Lennon found a peace that no concert stage could offer.

His serenity was born not from withdrawal, but from the intimacy of love expressed in everyday gestures: a smile exchanged, a child’s laughter, a moment of stillness held together.

4. Creativity in Stillness

Silence, for Lennon, was never empty. In Karuizawa, it became fertile ground where imagination could breathe again. The hush of the forest, the rhythm of bicycle wheels, the distant echo of a piano in the Mampei Hotel lounge — all of these sounds seemed to invite him back into music.

Here, ideas returned like birds to a resting branch. Melodies surfaced in fragments, carried perhaps by the wind through the pines. Lyrics formed not as declarations to the world, but as reflections whispered to himself.

His Favorite Coffee Shop “Rizanbo”

Family’s Seat at Rizanbo

His Favorite Blueberry Juce

Karuizawa did not take him away from music; it gave him back the freedom to dream without expectation.

And in that freedom, music quietly began to bloom again.

5. Legacies of Silence and Hope

What remains of Lennon’s days in Karuizawa is not a monument or museum, but something far more delicate: an atmosphere, a whisper of stillness that lingers in the air. Unlike Liverpool or New York, there are no statues or guided tours here. Instead, Karuizawa holds his memory gently, the way the forest holds morning mist.

This is perhaps the truest legacy of his time in Japan — that peace is not a spectacle, but a way of being. For travelers, walking these paths becomes more than a visit to a musician’s retreat. It becomes an invitation to listen inward, to rediscover one’s own center of stillness.

Kumoba Pond

In John’s eye at Rizanbo

６．Free As A Bird

In 1977, John recorded a demo tape for “Free As A Bird” in New York, but I can’t help but feel that the original version was created in Karuizawa.

I don’t think you could hear the birdsong from the Dakota House in New York.

I like to think that the first phrase was born in the summer of 1977, when he was listening to the chirping of the birds of Karuizawa, blending into nature, and was looking at Sean, who was turning two years old, free from all constraints.

John quietly sings of the importance of love and freedom, entrusting it to the bird.

[embed]

Closing

To walk where Lennon once walked is to feel both the fragility and the strength of peace.

In Karuizawa, his serene days continue to whisper: the greatest legacy is not the noise we make, but the silence we keep.

Remarks:

Contact to: Hideki FUKADA E-mail: hidekibeatles0110@icloud.com

Blog Account (Japanese): https://note.com/hideki979

Kindle book is available (Japanese): https://amzn.asia/d/f0fZvdT