CONTRIBUTED BY JOELLE YAMADA
Not worth driving all the way up there for. Not quite that cool. But if you’ve already made the trip up to the Aquarium or the Pineapple Park or you’ve spent the morning picking oranges then it’s a MUST SEE!
When entering the building, you’ll be surrounded by the typical Okinawan souvenir items (awamori, packaged sweets, t-shirts, etc). But over to your right is the entrance to the butterfly area. For 400¥ (adults) or 200¥ (3-15 yr olds) you can enter the garden – be sure to pick up a red umbrella on your way out – evidently the winged ones like red. Wander down the path and then up into the “Butterfly House,” a net-enclosed area. Here you can enjoy being swarmed by beautiful butterflies to your heart’s content – putting on one of the red hats provided will also help.
When you leave there you can… well… you can leave… OR you can spend a few more minutes walking around the garden and enjoying their interesting collection of hermit crabs, lovely plants and, of course, the requisite Blue Seal Ice Cream.
Either way, the whole visit won’t take you more than 30 minutes unless you choose to have lunch upstairs where they have an incredible view (see 3rd small pix). The kids loved the butterflies (they’ve got cocoons on display too in case you want a live illustration of the book you’ve read TOO many times: The Very Hungry Caterpillar). I thought it was pretty neato, too – but it’s a quick visit to add on to a day full of other activities.
You’ll pass the Butterfly Park on your left about 4 minutes before you get to the Aquarium on Motobu Penninsula.
My sister and I went there when we lived here the first time and drove only to visit the butterflies. It was so much fun. We didn’t even need the umbrella or hats….those butterflies just loved us. We were videotaping it all and laughed the entire time we were there. It was hard to get them off us so we could get out without any escaping…it was much better than some other butterfly parks I have been to in the past but I would also recommend combining it with another site as well just because it doesn’t take that long to go through the park.
Forgot to mention the hours — 0900 – 1700
Lunch 1100-1400
Website: http://www.ryugujo.net
I’d argue
that this is VERY cool!!!! Definitely worth seeing, especially if you’ve never been to a butterfly garden! We have 3 young kids and the 5 of us spent a good hour and a half INSIDE the big net room where the butterflies are. It was amazing. The kids loved it. It wasn’t crowded- just us for all that time. It was very neat. In the next room you can see cocoons and caterpillars and ‘new’ butterflies! Really, really cool!
Um, Directions????
Take 58 north to 449 to 114 follow the signs for ocean expo park. It will be on your left.