Japaneese Village, Buena Park, California

Any of you SoCal locals remember this place? I picked up this postcard folder for a buck the other day. it brought back a lot of memories.

We have some old 8mm movies of this place and my sister getting mobbed by the deer during one of our visits when they were trying to eat the ribbons out of her hair.

This place was closed and demolished in the 1970s? Anyone know exactly? Medevil Times restaurant and show (across from the Movieland Wax Museum) now occupies the site?

[ Edited by: ZuluMagoo on 2003-11-28 11:27 ]

[ Edited by: ZuluMagoo 2007-01-31 18:25 ]

Thanks for posting these great images! I loved Japanese Village as a kid. I might be confused but Japanese Village's address was 6122 Knott Ave. while Medieval Times address is 7662 Beach Blvd. I don't think hey are on the same property. I was pretty young then but I remember Japanese Villiage being close to a Nabisco factory. My favorite thing there was watching the pearl divers harvesting the oysters for their pearls. Here is a site with some memorabilia. Thank goodness I don't remember the Fuji Folk, they would have scared me silly. http://63.249.135.19/synthetrix/JV/jv01.html

Here is the main page with some cool images, if you look there's a Tiki or two. http://63.249.135.19/synthetrix/potf.html

[ Edited by: DawnTiki on 2003-12-01 12:15 ]

ZuluMagoo!

Mahalo for the post! I almost forgot about this place. I used to love going because I was a Pachinko fanatic and would play forever when visiting Japanese Village. Remember that whole area and all the noise from all those stainless steel balls? As a matter of fact, I got my first Pachinko game after begging my mom that "if I had my own at home, we wouldn't have to drive all the way down here to play!" The next Christmas I got my wish!

Thanks again ZM!

I don't remember this place. I used to live in Buena Park when I was a kid. What year were these shots taken. I lived about two miles from Knott's Berry Farm, right behind the Lincoln Drive-in (long gone). This was back when Knott's was a pie stand, chicken restaurant, stage coach & pannin' for gold in Ghost Town. Gotta go now...time to take my pill and go to sleep.

This place was fun. I even had a birthday party (8th year) there. It was located (visually) right off Hwy 5.

I worked at the Deer Park after a 4 yr career in the air farce...I beleive it was 1973-74'ish. It was cool place to visit and work. They had tigers, bears, deer, and dolphin shows. I remember the Doobie Bros and Grass Roots playing there. They also had the pearl divers, pachinko and karate show. It was too bad they went bankrupt '74-75?. Thanks for showing the pictures. Ref the street address I know it wasnt on Beach blvd so maybe it was Knott.
Aloha :drink:

[ Edited by: Tiki Rider Five-O on 2003-11-30 18:21 ]

Japanese Deer Park was located right off the 5 freeway in Buena Park - once you pass the old Nabisco factory (heading northbound) on th eright, look left - that's where it was! After it went bankrupt in the early 80's (I think) - it went through two more encarnations, Gentle Jungle & the Enchanted Village. Both only lasted a few years... Here's a link with a map of Enchanted Village:
http://themepark.sitesbyrob.com/enchanted.htm

Thanks for triggering some great memories.

I just have this vision of all these Japanes tourist going to California, only to find.., a Japanese theme park! haha!

Of course, I LOVE the fact that some of the coolest tiki bars are in Japan. Talk about 6 degrees of separation. The Americans got the idea from their days fithing the Japanese in Hawaii in WW2, brought it to america, then the Japanese came to america, saw the glory that is the tiki bar, then took the idea back to the east again. Too cool.

That's FIGHTING the japanes, not FILTHING the Japanese. That's something else entirely.
Besides, judging by the amount of panty vending machines in Tokyo, the Japanese can get filthy without any external help at all.

Got to start proofreading before I hit submit!

It looks like a fun place, but what's with all the animals in the Japanese Beer Park? :wink:

Here are the rest of the photos of the place, enjoy.

[ Edited by: ZuluMagoo 2007-01-31 18:33 ]

Oh my God!

I thought I had only dreamed of this place when I was a child...

Some thing else is nagging me..was there a drive- in theater near by?

You might be thinking of this one..?

There was also the Orange Drive-In off the 5 - closer to Disneyland, but definately on the way if travelling North - sadly, I couldn't find a pic on the web....

Or maybe you are thinking of the Santa Fe Springs one

which is a permanent swap meet now...

Here is an advertisment for Japanese Village from Vacationland Magazine 1973:

http://www.dldhistory.com/gallery.asp?Tab=Disneyland&Page=15&ID=1103&Current=14

--Richard
http://www.DLDHistory.com

Thanks for posting that, dldhistory.

I also like the old ad on your site for the Tahitian Terrace restaurant:
http://www.dldhistory.com/gallery.asp?Tab=Disneyland&Page=15&ID=1103&Current=9

As far as the Japanese Village goes, my parents took us kids there several times a year. It was one of our favorite theme parks and fairly inexpensive. In the deer-feeding enclosure, you could buy a small box of pellets to feed the deer. Inside the box there was a small plastic deer which you could take home. In the Dove enclosure there was a small plastic dove in the dove feed, and a small plastic koi in the koi feed. I still have those plastic animals somewhere.

I also remember enjoying the sea-lion shows and watching the pearl divers at work in their cove. I remember a Dancing Waters show as well, similar to the one at Sea World and almost every other amusement park in the 1970s.

We did Disneyland once a year, but the Japanese Village rated twice a year for our family.

Sabu

Such a blast from the past...so many memories!

I trained in a karate dojo (Japan Karate Federation) under Sensei Fumio Demura - who also happened to put on the karate demonstrations at the Deer Park. We used to go on the weekends, and I just loved the place - it was a beautiful, different world to escape to.

I'm a little late but just found this great forum. I have been telling my kids about JDP forever. I always loved japanese gardens & they had the best! I have tons of photos I took when we visited, which was as often as possible. I had always heard that it had to close because of a disease outbreak that wiped out the deer. It was in the early 70's. I also remember walking by the dolphin tank before it had any hardscape around it and petting the dolphins! We had our 4th grade field trip there also as we were studying Japan. I will try & post my photos for those who also have fond memories of what we called, Japanese Deer Park.

Bump. I had a request to restore the old broken picture links.

Here are the Fuji Folk from dldhistory's 1973 Vacationland magazine on his website (link is now broken in his post).

I did go to see the deer a couple of times...I do not recall seeing the Fuji Folk, but they look kinda freaky weird in those photos! It is likely I visited before the Fuji Folk were introduced. I don't remember too much...

[ Edited by: procinema29 2007-02-02 12:49 ]

Oh and also, I have one of those plastic deer! It is the strangest thing, because I found it while digging up my folks' backyard last year. Completely digging everywhere and separating rocks from dirt, and so on...I ended up inspecting many handfuls of dirt, and every so often I would come across an old marble or other small toy. And one of the things I found was a plastic deer from the deer gardens!

Bankruptcy auction, January, 1978

Japanese village, Santa'a village, Marineland, jungle island, etc...

http://www.image-archeology.com/japanese_deer_park.htm

Hey this "Beyond Tiki" section is kind of interesting, I never peek in here.

I have two memories of JDP.

1. My grandfather handed me a $5 bill to buy lunch. A deer came by and ate it. Fucking deer !!

2. After watching a hula performance, I took a short-cut to get to the restrooms. I walked right by the trailer where the dancers were removing their coconuts. That trailer door was wide open. :)

On 2009-09-20 22:43, JOHN-O wrote:
Hey this "Beyond Tiki" section is kind of interesting, I never peek in here.

I have two memories of JDP.

1. My grandfather handed me a $5 bill to buy lunch. A deer came by and ate it. Fucking deer !!

2. After watching a hula performance, I took a short-cut to get to the restrooms. I walked right by the trailer where the dancers were removing their coconuts. That trailer door was wide open. :)

So it all balanced out. Nice!

A standout memory of JDP for me was one of the live shows..where they put a living bear (a panda?) onto a swing contraption that rocked back and forth until it did complete upside-down loops with the bear holding on! This was advertised on their television commercial..don't remember this famous Bear's name.

Another memory is a demonstration followed by a hands-on class on origami paper-folding techniques. I made an animal using colorful folded paper that I took home as a souvenir.

Another faint memory is a grade-school field trip there to study exotic fish they had in large tanks.

This place (for me) didn't rate more than a single visit or two. Why? No thrill-rides. At a time when traditional amusement parks in So. Cal were nearing their demise, I would rather beg my parents to take me to the Pike in Long Beach or Belmont Park in San Diego. Belmont had the terrifying looking wooden coaster. The Pike was terrifying..but exciting. There was no time to waste knowing those legends would not be around much longer.

JDP was milk compare to the other's whiskey.

When the press announced the JDP property was to be auctioned off due to bankruptcy nobody in my neighborhood (my friends)gave a shit.

On 2009-09-21 07:48, TikiG wrote:

This place (for me) didn't rate more than a single visit or two. Why? No thrill-rides.

JDP was milk compare to the other's whiskey.

When the press announced the JDP property was to be auctioned off due to bankruptcy nobody in my neighborhood (my friends)gave a shit.

You guys should have hung out by the hula dancers' trailer. :)

As mentioned earlier, when the Japanese Village tanked (mid 70's) it was re-themed and re-opened as the Enchanted Village.

Here's a news clipping:

Closeup:

Clipping found here:
http://www.octhen.com/2006_08_01_archive.html

[Edited to add source.]

[ Edited by: Hakalugi 2010-03-25 10:36 ]

Wow! That's a very cool find... I've always wondered who designed the Enchanted Village incarnation of this park.

The thing that is strange about this is the address, 6122 Knott ave. if you look on google maps, that is right in the middle of a railroad track, and that track was always there. But, if you look to the north and northeast, you will see a big empty lot, which looks to be about 35 acres as described in all these articles. I am wondering if that is the actual physical location?

A comprehensive summary of the history of the Japanese Village & Deerpark and Enchanted Village...

MiceAge: The Rise and Tragic Fall of Orange County's Japanese Deer Park

[->>King Bushwich 33rd on Hulu.com

Nice find your Highness, Thanks!