Areas of Seattle-Tacoma with large Japanese populations?

[Ira500]

Somerset neighborhood in Bellevue. Also has a great elementary school.

[mazerunner]

The information you all have provided has been very helpful. Sounds like Federal Way might be the place to live. It seems to be halfway between Tacoma and Seattle, which works for me because I'm not so sure I'd want to deal with how overpriced Seattle is. Also, living in Seattle proper would make for a killer commute. And if there are a lot of Asians there, that works out great for us because it'll be easier to find ingredients, foods and restaurants to our liking.

Thanks to everyone. Keep the good info coming!

[415_s2k]

Originally Posted by mazerunner

The information you all have provided has been very helpful. Sounds like Federal Way might be the place to live. It seems to be halfway between Tacoma and Seattle, which works for me because I'm not so sure I'd want to deal with how overpriced Seattle is. Also, living in Seattle proper would make for a killer commute. And if there are a lot of Asians there, that works out great for us because it'll be easier to find ingredients, foods and restaurants to our liking.

Thanks to everyone. Keep the good info coming!

There are a whole bunch of Asian grocers on Pacific Coast Highway in the 300's, around The Commons (the mall). Paldo Market is a branded Korean grocer and H Mart is a larger Korean place as well. I was actually sort of frustrated that the Paldo market didn't sell the Paldo Seoul Kimchi noodle bowls, with vacuum-sealed kimchi. Both sell a fair number of Japanese-made products; also, there's a ton of cuisine overlap these days (soba, ramen, udon, sushi, inari, katsudon, etc are all quite popular in Korea), so you have a lot of products that are either Korean-made and labelled versions of Japanese food, or, they're Japanese-made but labelled for the Korean market. Kind of funny buying Korean-labelled Kikkoman shoyu amakuchi...

Seattle isn't cheap by most metrics, but Federal Way/Auburn/Kent are. You may hear some people dump on the area, and twelve years ago, they would have been right to; when I grew up there, it was definitely a bit ragged. However, during the credit boom, a lot of families - many of them Asian - moved there because it's so much less expensive to buy a house there. When I moved back to the area, the aforementioned girl I dated as well as my girlfriend through the rest of my time there, who was hapa, had both moved there with their families in the earlier 00's and lived in totally normal, middle-class areas whose only fault, again, was that they were just sort of boring... which likely isn't too much of a concern if you're moving there with a family

Try to make sure that you're in the zoning for Kilo instead of Totem for when your kid is old enough for Jr. High though. Mark my words.

[Brandonsmom71]

A Japanese preschool recently opened in Puyallup for ages 3-5 and in Tacoma ages 1-3 through South Hill Cooperative Preschool it's affiliated with Bates Technical College. For information [url=http://www.southhillcoop.org/]South Hill Cooperative Preschool[/url]

The cost is $30.00 for ages 1-3 class/1 day a week (parent/child class) & $65.00 per month for ages 3-5 class/2 days a week. They are still enrolling ages 3-5 for the Mon/Wed class. Infant classes for ages 0-12 months is beginning in Jan/Feb 2013 (it is also a parent/child class) Parents take turns volunteering in class and can earn credits through Bates. This offsets the cost and makes it affordable, while giving parents the opportunity to share in the process. Classes run September through May.

It's a wonderful program and a great resource in the community. My son attends the Mon/Wed ages 3-5 class and loves it. The teachers are fun, energetic and are native Japanese. It's been a wonderful experience and we look forward to sharing it with others in the community.

[RunTheDistance476]

Is this a racist thread?

Could you imagine if some from Europe came on here and posted a thread "Where does all of the White Population Live"?

The world would EXPLODE! But it is okay if people who are non-white do it, right?

Doesn't actually bother me that much, but it is just something funny to think about

[poopskooper]

Originally Posted by wlw2009

Is this a racist thread?

Could you imagine if some from Europe came on here and posted a thread "Where does all of the White Population Live"?

The world would EXPLODE! But it is okay if people who are non-white do it, right?

Doesn't actually bother me that much, but it is just something funny to think about

From what I can gather from the opening post, 1) it didn't overtly mention that the writer is of Japanese ethnicity, and 2) even if they were, it's a perfectly legitimate inquiry on a board such as this.

They may be European folks who enjoy Japanese culture; who knows? Even if they were of Japanese ethnicity, they may not be "off the boat" or immigrants; they may have been born in this country and have some lingering cultural values that makes them want to live or be near others of similar interests.

And, I'm going to be flamed for this comment but the "white population" as you put it, have been in the majority in these United States for decades and decades and sometimes weren't always welcoming to those of different color skin or whose ancestors weren't from Europe. So in my opinion, it's not the same as a person of European descent asking "where do all the white people live," as it is for a person of Japanese ethnicity to ask where they may find places where there a lot of Japanese restaurants, grocery stores, or a school that teaches Japanese.

Plus, it's more like a somebody from Italy asking where there are Italian restaurants or places to buy Italian groceries ...or find a school that teaches one how to speak Italian. Wouldn't that be acceptable?

So no, in my opinion only, this is not a racist thread.

[jameslee77to7]

There is Bellevue. I normally don't recommend this place, but it also has sizable Asian population and an Uwajimaya store. As an Asian person myself, I'd say that Asians in Bellevue are weird. They reminds me of those rich, uptight Chinese and Koreans in suburban LA. Highly pussified, uptight, most likely abusing their kids, living in big houses. There are many Japaneses in Bellevue too (they tend to avoid and ignore me for some reasons.), but I say avoid there if you can.

Then there's Federal Way. Many of Asians live there too, there are Japaneses but I don't remember there's a Japanese supermarket like Uwajimaya. However, they're somewhat lesser pain in the ass to deal with than the Bellevue ones.

Originally Posted by Freebird2007

To the untrained eye, it seems that Uwajiyama is "japanese" but in reality, the Uwajiyama in Seattle is more Chinese oriented than Japanese.

ummm...no.

[PollyGlott]

Originally Posted by wlw2009

Is this a racist thread?
Could you imagine if some from Europe came on here and posted a thread "Where does all of the White Population Live"?
The world would EXPLODE! But it is okay if people who are non-white do it, right?
Doesn't actually bother me that much, but it is just something funny to think about

No, it's not a racist thread! You are confusing race (color) and culture.
This person is asking about a specific cultural/linguistic group.
If someone of Italian ancestry, say, wanted to feel "at home", s/he might ask about Italian neighborhoods. Same thing with a person coming from Ethiopia, or Venezuela, or Ukraine.
That's not to say that some posters aren't racist - they're the ones who will mention "white" neighborhoods, lumping together all kinds of ethnicities/cultural backgrounds just because they don't want to live near people of color.

[Kalex]

Seattle proper has a few Japanese immersion programs in public schools - they are partial immersion. I looked into them bc my daughter was coming from a full-immersion Japanese program, but the people I talked to were all so overly rude and unhelpful we abandoned the idea altogether. Didn't want to move to a neighborhood specifically for a school like that. Bellevue does have a fairly large population but we've found very little in terms of restaurants/shops. We do the Saturday morning program at JCCCW- the people there are great and have been very helpful