Ryugujo Butterfly Garden

If you want to get up close to hundreds of butterflies--some as big as your head--with many varieties only seen in Okinawa, Japan, you have to visit the Ryuguujyou - The Butterfly House (a.k.a. Ryugujo Butterfly Garden) on the Motubo Peninsula near the Ocean Expo Park and Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.

Although we toured the Butterfly Garden in the off-season for tourists, it was evident they could have handled many more people than the few of us who ventured around the gardens. Okinawa is known for the many species of butterflies, with truly unbelievable colors and sizes, many of which are on display. Unfortunately, probably due to the time of year we were visiting, there were not much variety in the type of butterflies in the Butterfly House--but there were many types outside in the gardens around the Butterfly House. There were displays and demonstrations of captured butterflies, but only one type seemed to be visible that would come up and land on you--especially if you are wearing the type of red color they are attracted to. You can borrow a red ballcap or rent a red umbrella to attract those beautiful winged butterflies to hover and land all over you.

The flowers in the outdoor gradens were in full bloom and we saw many varities of butterflies "in the wild" around the Butterly Gardens. The visit is rather inexpensive with a very reasonable entrance fee of ¥400 ($4 USD equivalent) for adults and ¥200 for children from age of 3 to 16. The giftshop souveniers at the Butterfly Gardens were a little more expensive and cheesey, but we did not visit the on-site restaurant.

This was a "must see" for our visit to Okinawa and we highly recommend it!