A Japanese writer and photographer is retracing the Bermuda footsteps of famed musician John Lennon on a weeklong assignment to the Island.

Kozue Etsuzen has captured images of various places where the former Beatle either stayed or is known to have visited during his last summer holiday in 1980, six months before he was shot dead in New York.

The pictures are expected to appear in a number of publications in Japan later this year.

For Ms Etsuzen it is a dream assignment as she is not only a long-time fan of the music of The Beatles and Lennon, but she has never before visited Bermuda.

"It never occurred to me that I would one day come here and see these places," she said.

During her trip she has seen Undercliffe, a house in Fairylands, Pembroke Lennon rented for most of his vacation in June and July 1980.

She has taken pictures at Spanish Point where the musician and his five-year-old son Sean were photographed, and also visited Magnolia House, on Front Street, which was once the Disco 40 nightclub where the former Beatle said he was inspired to start writing music again after a five-year hiatus.

Also on her itinerary was the Botanical Gardens where Lennon famously came across a double fantasy freesia, the name of which he took for the title of his comeback album 'Double Fantasy'.

It was the last album he released before his death, at age 40.

A freelance translator, Ms Etsuzen has lived in the UK for 17 years where she has occasionally acted as a guide on tourist tours to places that are steeped in Beatles' folklore, such as the Abbey Road recording studios in London.

She has also written translations for a number of Beatles-related publications in Japan.

Using information from an in-depth feature on Lennon's time in Bermuda, printed in The Royal Gazette in 2005, as well as her own knowledge on the subject, she has retraced the musician's footsteps across much of the Island.

"Spanish Point was the best place because it looks just like it does in the photograph of John and Sean (Lennon)," said Ms Etsuzen.

"And seeing the house where he stayed and St. George's that was really beautiful and I can see why he really liked it and called it paradise."

Ms Etsuzen mentioned that there is a group in Japan that is trying to recreate the double fantasy freesia, a flower first propagated in the 1960s.

The vanished flower is not known to have been commercially traded since the end of the 1990s.

Asked why she thought the interest in The Beatles and Lennon remained so high around the world 40 years after the pop group split up and 30 years after Lennon himself died, Ms Etsuzen said: "The Beatles were huge and many people could relate to Lennon and his background. He had a hard childhood but then had such success. His music changed the lives of many people."

And Ms Etsuzen said she was also impressed with Bermuda in general. She said: "It is really nice and the people are so friendly."