Ostrich Vert CONTRIBUTED BY EMILY FINDERS

My husband and I have always enjoyed visiting unique animal farms/parks.  On our first vacation together we visited an alligator farm in Louisiana.  On our honeymoon we spent a morning at an Alpaca farm in Cape May, NJ.  So shortly after arriving on Okinawa in October, I began searching for a new and different animal experience for us to enjoy.  My search led me to Okinawa Ostrich Show Land (also known as Dacholand).

After reading about this park on a few tourist websites and finding it on the map on my iPhone, we set out on a Saturday afternoon in search of the park.  The park is fairly easy to get to, although it was a decent length drive from our home on Camp Kinser.

Ostrich Sign

The park is well marked with a large sign (in Japanese) that has pictures of ostriches and ostrich eggs on both sides.  We were greeted by a very friendly Japanese woman at the entrance and asked to pay the 500Y admission fee.  She led us into the park, gave us a large handful of green plants and motioned that we could feed the birds.  We were the only visitors at the park that day and after getting us started, the Japanese woman left us alone in the park to explore.

Ostrich Feeding

The farm consists of several large pens of ostriches, and a few emus.  We entertained ourselves by feeding the birds for a long while.  The birds are very friendly, while I was looking at my camera; one leaned over the fence and snatched the food right out of my hand.  At the very back of the farm there are several small sheds with horses and goats.  Some of the goats were roaming free, grazing in the piles of grass and plants.  On the other side of the park there were several colorful turkeys.  The male turkeys followed us around, ruffling their feathers and gobbling when we got to close to the female turkeys.

Ostrich Turkeys

While we enjoyed our visit to Ostrich Show Land, I would recommend combining it with other activities to make the long drive up north worthwhile (we only spent about 45 minutes in the park).   This would be a fun place to visit with young kids, as there is plenty of room for them to run around and lots to look at.  The park also has a small restaurant next door where you can sample ostrich meat and eggs and other more typical Okinawa foods.  Unfortunately we had a big lunch out just before we went to the park, so we opted not to eat at the restaurant during our visit.  If you enjoy trying new and interesting foods, this may be a nice way to cap off your visit!

Hours: 9am to 6pm, 7 days per week

Parking: There is a big parking area right in front of the farm with many spots available.

Price: Admission is 500Y for adults and 250Y for young children (cash only).

Directions: Take the expressway all the way to 58.  Go north on 58 until you hit route 71.  Take a right on route 71.  Make a left onto route 505 and follow this route until you see the sign for Dacholand.  The sign is in Japanese but has several pictures of ostriches and is pretty easy to spot.

Address: 309 Heshiki Nakijin-son, Okinawa Prefecture 905-0423, Japan.  We were able to locate this on our iPhone and follow the map directions pretty easily.

Phone:  980-56-3550

8 COMMENTS

  1. I had a nice time there. And as others have said, the Japanese couple are super sweet. They actually have a small restaurant in the right-most entrance. We went in for just a cup of coffee, and the Japanese woman gave us some “presents,” moon pie type treat and oranges. The man speaks a little English, and neither seems to care if you speak limited (or no) Japanese, that didn’t stop them from chatting us up at length. While we were in there, a family came in and bought meat from them (not sure what it was), and an elderly couple came in for the noodles they serve, which the man described as “ichiban!” Not sure what all food they offer as the menus are only in Japanese. Very sweet people.

  2. It was a beautiful day and we visited the Ostrich Farm before heading off to Mt. Yaedake. We really didn’t know what to do after getting out. A seasoned Japanese lady told us how much it would be and handed us some dying weeds, greens to feed the ostriches with. Like many zoos here, the ostriches were losing feathers, I could literally see their ‘chicken skin.’ Some ostriches were muddy. The kids went through the whole zoo in about ten minutes. A season Japanese man told signaled for us to follow him to the back and gave my son a goat with a rope as his leash. They walked around a bit. Basically, it’s like someone’s backyard with animals living there. The turkeys were caged up. We could hear them but not really see them. That was really sad. Don’t think we’ll be visiting this place again. The boys had a lot more fun riding the little plastic toy horses that were being used as lawn decorations. The Japanese couple were really nice, though.

  3. We went here over the summer. It was kind of sad and creepy. In the sheds in the back were goats, deer and a mini horse that were tied in the sheds with lots of mud. It looked like the animals had hoof rot. All of the ostrichs were missing their rear feathers (as were some of the turkeys) and had scabs covering their bodies. I realize that there are different standards here (evident at the Okinawa Zoo, Neo Park, Ostrich Park, Mini Mini Zoo, etc) but it still was pretty bad.

    • It takes a little while, you have to pass Aeon and Makeman on the 58, as well as Neo Park. It should be the next major left turn (you will see signs for I think 4 places all going that direction, I think for Nakijin and etc.) but will not see it marked as 71 until you turn on it. The 505 was easy to find, when you run into it you can go only left or right. Then when you are going down the 505 you will think, did you miss it? That is what we were thinking and had just about completely given up when lo and behold we FINALLY see a sign for it but it was right outside the place.