Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Japanese Village and Deer Park

Japanese Village and Deer Park was a beautiful Japanese garden located in Buena Park, where you could spend a relaxing moment admiring the gardens, watching the deer, or taking in a show. It's long since gone.

Here are some articles we've published about Japanese Village and Deer Park.

8 comments:

  1. i rember the deer park ..it was great... i heard it moved to san deigo.. did it ? i would love to vist it again ...lulu

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  2. i rember the deer park ..it was great... i heard it moved to san deigo.. did it ? i would love to vist it again ...lulu

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  3. I grew up in Buena Park in the 60s. I remember the Japanese Deer Park being off the Riverside Freeway. The deer were tiny; less than half the size of regular deer. They had a refreshment stand with Oriental food in it; and the chopsticks came in paper wrappers like straws. There were instructions on how to use chopsticks printed on the papers, and my older brother spent an afternoon teaching us younger kids how to use chopsticks. I think we moved away right before it closed down.

    Donna K Rogers

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  4. I loved this place and remember exactly where it used to be. It was located just south of the 5 Fwy and about a mile north of the 91 Fwy just off of Knott Ave. It is an industrial complex now but the street into the complex is still called Village Drive.

    When it first opened it was small. It followed the Knott's Berry Farm business model. It was just a beautiful Japanese garden and small deer feeding area and aviary that supported a Japanese restaurant. And then it slowly over the next decade grew into a full on theme park. Then it was sold to a bigger company and the name changed to The Enchanted Village. And then they went out of business amidst mismanagement and scandal. It was very sad. I do not think it ever moved to San Diego, though it would be nice if there were something similar.

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  5. My mother took us to the Japanese Deer park in the 70's I believe. You could go into an area where deer roamed around you looking to eat deer food from your hands. They also had this small lagoon where Japanese women would dive down to the bottom and select an oyster from the bottom and bring it up to you. Then you would take it to an area where they would open it up and give you the pearl inside. I remembered the lady opening my mom's and founding a balc pearl inside. Everyone was so excited. I guess they are rare. I wonder if my mom still has it or even remembers that day. I think she liked going there because she lived in Thailand when she was in high school. Other then that, it was okay. Disneyland was and still is the bomb.

    Cheers,

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  6. I visited the Japanese Deer Park many times and even celebrated my birthday there. When my uncle from Washington DC was visiting, we took him there and he forgot that his airplane ticket was hanging out of his back pocket. A deer than munched on his airplane ticket, destroying it, and he called his wife to ask for more money to buy another plane ticket. She refused to believe that a deer ate his ticket-- I think that incidnet contributed to their later divorce.

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  7. I remember visiting there when I was like 12 since I lived close by in La Palma we would visit it a few times a year it was beautiful I think I even won tickets on a local radio station too what great memories to bad its gone

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  8. I remember the deer park I was like 13 years old and visited it because it was so close I need to be in la palma california. I think I even won tickets on the local radio station so sad that I had to close down

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