CONTRIBUTED BY MARY RICHARDSON

I know unusual and mismatched business combinations exist out there in the world. I’ve danced at a Disco/Rodeo in San Antonio, Texas and I recently walked by an apartment coffee shop/cat hospice in Tokyo. Frankly, I respect creativity in small business and I do appreciate the intention to serve multiple consumer needs all at one time.

However, imagine my surprise to discover another unique commercial hybrid- a fresh egg shop and zoo right here in Okinawa.

The way I came to find this place is somewhat amusing. I was at a local farmer’s market in the process of buying a carton of eggs a while back. An Okinawan woman approached me out of the blue and recommended that I not buy those eggs. There was a much better egg shop nearby she explained. The friendly woman was so enthusiastic about those eggs, in fact, that she even offered to drive me over there to see for myself…

Okay, so I like spontaneity as much as the next person, but I just wasn’t too into the idea of getting in a stranger’s car that day. Instead, I asked the egg lady to give me directions so that I could go on my own.

And that’s exactly what I did, and what a surprise. This place definitely sells eggs and definitely showcases animals. Lots of them including a llama, ostrich, various monkeys, birds, bats, turtles, ducks, and others.
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There is also an abundance of eggs and a small bakery selling chiffon cakes and the largest cream puffs I’ve seen on island. On a side note, an Okinawan friend of mine who loves baking cakes and brownies swears by the quality of these eggs.

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To be honest, this place is a little wacky. In no way is it a first-class zoo– it’s not huge, the cages are a little dirty and parts of it smell, well, like animals… but it is unique, popular among Okinawan familes, perfect for little kids to mill around, it’s a quick excursion, and best of all, it’s FREE!!!

So if you’re hankering to bake a cake soon and want to let you kids loose for a while, check out the Zukeran Egg Shop and Zoo.


Zukeran Egg Shop and Zoo

Hours: 9:00 am -7:00 pm

Address: 660 Akamichi, Uruma, Okinawa Prefecture 904-2245, Japan
GPS Coordinates: 26.359836, 127.82292529999995
Directions: Go out Gate 3 Kadena and drive straight past Camp Shields until you get to 329. Turn Right on the 329 and continue straight until you reach 16, the Chibana intersection. It’s quite a big intersection, but look for the Chibana sign overhead. Turn Left at the Chibana intersection and drive straight until you see two large Pachinko parlors ahead. The first is Orange and the second is Yellow and White. The Zukeran Egg Shop and Zoo is between the two Pachinko parlors, but it’s a really narrow road. Look for this sign and turn Left there into the parking area.

 

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40 COMMENTS

  1. We got some what I think is fudge and two small chocolate cakes here. Very YUMMY! Highly recommended..we are big into trying various bakeries around the island and this one did not disappoint. The eggs (just ate one in fact) are great, too. From Courtney, the other posters directions are spot on. It is less that 10 min away!

  2. Someone could have warned us about the giant spiders living near the ceilings. Ack. But we bought a flat of large eggs (40) ¥780 and checked out the animals. I agree they look a little sad but it was still neat to see them in a different culture. We did legitimately run, screaming from a 6-7″ spider above us. We are so brave, aren’t we? Lol. Oh and the samples for the freezer pastries and goods were delicious, they even have blue seal ice cream in there. We are definitely buying eggs from there more often but I’m not sure I’ll go back in the jungle.

  3. Just went here yesterday with a friend and our daughters. The girls had a great time looking at all the animals. We grabbed a treat from the shop and some fresh eggs that are delicious. Great place!!

  4. We went to the egg farm today. It was great for children and there is plenty of room to take strollers. My daughter is 11 months and loved the animals. There is a great bakery/market and the cream puffs are awesome. The zoo portion is free and almost all indoors (it was raining today and we were fine). Make sure you look for the left turn on rt 16 (chibana intersection sign is very small). Make sure to bring your camera and yen for purchases. 🙂

  5. I want to go today but need to know about side to side double strollers. My friend wants to go with me BUT she wont make her son walk who is 17mons (I made my 3yr old by that age) and she has a 5mons but doesn’t want to put her in the front pack. I dont want to tell her yes she can bring it and then find out the place is WAAAAAAY to small for the pack. Thank you in advance

  6. Went there with the family on a rainy day. The cream puffs are awesome…glad I only brought a few yen, I would have bought them out. It was a bit stinky in there. I wish the owners would do a better job of cleaning up after the animals…they look so sad, especially the donkeys and ponies. It is a great spot for the small kids…they have several opportunities for animal petting.

  7. We went to this zoo and egg shop today and I was super impressed. We arrived just in time to see the cutest monkey getting his bath. The llama came right up to my kids and allowed us to pet him/her and the peacocks were beautiful! This was all a couple of steps from the car and not even in the “official zoo” yet. We entered a very pleasant and clean entry area where they had a “Harry Potter Owl” and various other small birds. We decided to head straight into the zoo part and save the shop for last. I was very impressed with the cleanliness of the cages and the amount of animals they had. If there was a dirty cage, there was a person nearby that seemed to be making their way down to clean it. We were there when they first opened and I have a feeling that cage cleanings had recently started. All the animals appeared well taken care of and we really, really enjoyed ourselves. Oh, on the way out I bought 4 HUGE cream puffs for 600 yen and they were sooooo good. My kids can usually devour something like that easily, but even they were like, “mom, this is huge, I can’t finish it”. I think I saw 36 eggs for 600 yen so I will be back to purchase some of those. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that this place is FREE!!

  8. We were introduced to this place through the Foster Market Tour and had a blast going there! They have that green melon soda but in slushie form! I was preggo and HAD to have that. It did not disappoint. The desserts are too good so if you don’t want to find yourself stopping there every excuse you can find then don’t go! Their egg custard is similar to flan and I dearly miss my flan from Miami so I always get one of those. You just can’t go wrong at this place.

  9. Alicia, I have some in my fridge that are at least a month old. Since these are much fresher than the ones in the commissary I would say a shelf like of 2 months. As long as they arent cracked, eggs will last a while in the fridge.

  10. I took my three year old son to the “egg zoo” today and it was really neat. I am new to the island and when I mention going places on the weekend people ask me how I know so many places already and I tell them, Okinawa Hai of course! Anyway, we enjoyed the egg zoo. We haven’t eaten any eggs yet, but the chocolate custard and mini “european” cakes have been devoured. The animals were neat even though they seemed a little sad. But they seemed well taken care of and this set up is pretty typical of overseas zoos. We will go again!

  11. What to do today~we finally went to check this place out! The location is very close to our home (a plus) and I was very impressed w/ the set-up (very kid friendly). I also agree w/ a previous post that the animals were taken care of and it didn’t even smell like I would’ve imagined. We did go at a busier time of day plus it being the weekend but we were able to get a spot in the covered parking as mentioned. My son loved all the different animals, getting to sneak in touching them and even feeding some of them leafy plants. Of course by the time we made it through the animals, birds, turtles, you name it, we went into the shop. The desserts all looked delicious. I got a bucket of the eggs, 2 custard parfaits and the crusted custard dessert. We will definately be going back and I know my son will be requesting to go!

  12. I read about this on here MONTHS ago and just never made it out there. My husband and I grabed up the kids 15,13 and 10 and headed over there today. They loved it. It was great! Free Parking, Free to get in, Free to see the animals. The baked goods are so yummy and cost very little. It was an awesome little outing and we will be going back. Plus I picked up a HUGE flat of eggs for this weeks breakfast and baking. No hormones added!!!

  13. We went there the first time last week. And my daughter already made me go back 3 time this week! Why? For their chocolate cream puff and to see the animals plus it’s on our way home from school. This place is bigger than I thought. And perfect for the attension span for little ones. There is even a covered car park. All you have to do is drive all the way to the end of the building and follow the signs.Perfect for rainy day like today. They have these 2 huge cream puff that they sell at the counter. I couldn’t figure out what’s the difference. But one seems to be drier than the other. I personally like the one that is made with the same custard but with the puff pastry. I can’t wait to try their sponge cake and muffins.

  14. This place is AWESOME!! I think the animals here are better treated than the Zoo. It is actually a lot bigger than I expected, and the baked goods were divine 🙂
    Definitely a place to go before leaving the island–Thank you SO much for posting!!

  15. I must say, I disagree with the difference in the consistency of the eggs. Both the commissary eggs and the local eggs have approximately the same “out of the egg” behavior. If you open your fridge, pick up your egg, proceed directly to your frying pan and crack it into the hot pan, then it will be less runny b/c it is cold. However, let your egg sit on the counter for a little while to warm up, and both the local and the commissary eggs will be equally more runny.
    My reasoning for using primarily local eggs (and local produce and local meats, etc.) is that they are fresher and have not been shipped across the Pacific from one distribution center to another. Nothing says farm fresh taste like a trip through customs. Also, shipping all that stuff over here (when it is readily available locally) is a huge waste of energy and fuels. Aren’t there already enough carbon emissions w/o adding shipping eggs and frozen chicken and Wonderbread from CA (and who knows where else before that)?

  16. THANKS, Mary! I’m one of those who can no longer bring myself to eat eggs from the commissary — I keep thinking STEROIDS/ GROWTH HORMONES and it freaks me out. 🙂 But I’m weird that way… so, I’m thrilled to know of another local place to get eggs. I usually go to the ANEW organic shop outside Kadena Gate 2 to get eggs. Or I buy the EM ones at local markets. But the last time I went to ANEW with my kiddos we ended up with a half dozen eggs broken on the floor. So distracting them with a llama sounds genius!

    And to answer Janet — one of the first things you’ll notice with local eggs is the GORGEOUS yolk color and next you’ll see that when you break them they aren’t at all “runny” — the egg white is thicker and just a better texture.

  17. Janet,

    I’m kind of picky about eggs, and I like really fresh ones, so these are good for me.

    Just so you know, you can find these same eggs in Jusco. They are in plastic tubs near the fish area.

    It’s fun to go to this place though since it’s so local and kind of offbeat.

    I’ve also heard this place called the Mini Mini Doboutsen (zoo)

  18. Mary,

    Had no idea about this place. My younger may enjoy this place. Thanks for the write up! I will probably go just to try the chiffon cake – I love all the Japanese desserts here. Do you notice a big difference in these eggs vs. ours in the commissary? I’ve wanted to try but hadn’t yet. Thanks!

  19. This place was part of the Farm and Fish Market tour offered by MCCS. She said it was called Mini-Mini Zoo.

    The cream puffs are excellent! And super huge! They have soft and hard shells and I think they were only like 150 yen or something crazy like that. They put them in a cute little bag with one of those mini ice packs so you can take some home. The zoo is all covered too so you can still do it on a rainy day.

    I’ll give my directions coming from Foster on 330. Just keep going a long ways, eventually turn left onto 16, go a little bit and it will be on your right hand side before a huge orange pachinko parlor. Also I know MCCS tours has a map they can give you if all else fails.