Reasonable area + Japanese culture?

[Latchkey Kid]

Originally Posted by movingforward11

. LA is famous for gangs and Hollywood and such, so it can be a little intimidating.

Have you actually been to LA yet? Not as scary as it might seem, yet still not a place to move to without checking out in person first. Good or bad, it seems that it doesn't quite live up to a lot of people's expectations.

[RobE]

Torrance is probably the place to go. One of my Japanese friends has relatives in that area and there are a number of Japanese markets and stores (they used to have a Kinokuniya Bookstore there, but it either moved or closed). Pacific Square in Gardena is also not that far away from Torrance.

The thing about the Japanese community in SoCal is that it is pretty spread out and diffused now and has been overshadowed by the recent influx of Koreans, Filipinos and Vietnamese. As someone noted earlier, Little Tokyo is now just mostly for tourists and is becoming less actual Japanese all the time. So Torrance is about the closest now in terms of having what could be called a core Japanese community.

There are Saturday schools, but I don't know of any five or six day a week private Japanese academies like they have back east.

Somebody mentioned Costa Mesa. It is true that they have a small Japanese mall there (on Paularino east of Bristol just off the 405 fwy and close to South Coast Plaza) and it rocks, but CM isn't what you're looking for as far as living environment is concerned. If you're not going to choose Torrance, choose Irvine. At least Irvine will satisfy the Japanese need for orderliness, cleanliness and low crime (I've lived in Tokyo and Shizuoka Prefecture). I have no idea if there is any friction arising from Japanese-Korean rivalries in Irvine since Irvine has a considerable Korean community now.

There are kenminkai in L.A., though as well as Japan America Societies and the JBA Japan Business Association). Perhaps they might be able to help you in some way?

Also, TV Japan services the Southern California area if you want Japanese television programming in addition to what is shown on the weekends on one of the local channels.

[urano]

Thanks to all of you Folks for your comments.
Apologies for the late reply as I have been traveling for a couple of weeks.

It seems Torrance and Costa-Mesa /Irvine are the logical options for middle class families.
I will concentrate efforts on both areas and will post the research results for future reference to others.

In the mean time, found these cool websites

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

with maps, stats and living indexes such as crime rates and housing pricing
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

[BethYama]

I lived in the Irvine area for 12 years after moving from Tokyo, and my children have been in Japanese school (hoshuuko) for 10 years. I also provided language and culture support for transfer families in Irvine, so I know what they like.

In Orange County, the vast majority of recent arrivals and short-term placement families from Japan settle in Irvine because of its reputation for low crime rates and the quality of the schools, especially the number of ELD classes. Also the Costa Mesa Japanese stores (Mitsuwa, Marukai, Book Off) are within a 10-minute drive on the freeway, not to mention the new Korean markets in Irvine that offer many of the fresh ingredients needed for Japanese cooking. There are usually 2-3 small Japanese preschool/daycares operating in the area, but they come and go. Thanks to UCI and a number of small language schools there are lots of Japanese students willing to come to your house babysit or work with kids on their Japanese. We had several students live with us in exchange for helping with the kids, and in definitely helped keep them entertained and motivated.

Rents in Irvine are by no means reasonable, but even many families without the benefit of company rent support follow the transfers because of the convenience, the clean and controlled quality of the neighborhoods, and the sense of security. You can get most of these things for slightly less rent in parts of Tustin, Orange and Lake Forest. Down the freeway 10-15 mintues in Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills, Rancho Santa Margarita, etc. the towns are just as planned and controlled, but you're moving further away from the Asian markets and, more importantly, from Japanese language and social opportunities for the kids.

For school-age kids, there are also several options in the Irvine area. Like the preschools some of these come and go, but there are at least 5 different enrichment schools (juku) offering evening, weekend, and summer programs for permanent residents (who tend to want to focus more on language) as well as students preparing to return to Japan for higher education (who need all subjects to prepare for entrance exams).

Finally there is the official hoshuuko, or Japanese government school, called Asahi Gakuen. It has about 600 students and is held in a Garden Grove high school from 8:45-3:30 every Saturday. Other branches of Asahi Gakuen are in Santa Monica, Torrance, and San Gabriel. The curriculum covers the same subjects with the same texts used in Japan, except music, PE, and (ha!) English. One advantage of having your children in this Ministry of Education sanctioned school is that it is easier to send them to school in Japan in July for taiken nyuugaku. I've never met a kid who didn't absolutely love the experience (the summer trip, not Asahi!), and it's how many parents motivate their kids to keep up with the daily homework and spend their Saturdays studying during the regular school year. Asahi Gakuen requires a near-native level of proficiency to enter. At least one parent must be able to read and communicate in Japanese, and volunteer on a regular basis. I believe the cost is $150/month, with all texts provided.

The sad thing about Irvine is that, having done all that work to keep kids not only bilingual but fully literate in Japanese, there is a distinct limit to how much credit they can get for it in high school, because the district doesn't offer Japanese as a foreign language. Chinese and Korean are offered, probably because the more permanent residents in those communities had a bigger stake in lobbying for those programs. The Japanese population is close to 50% transfers, and any Japanese language that could be offered in schools would barely make a dent in what they need to return to school in Japan.

For that and many other reasons, we left Irvine last year and moved 20 minutes south to a beach town, where our kids can get credit for the equivalent of 4 years of high school Japanese (not automatically, but that's another story). The Saturday commute to Garden Grove takes about an hour each way, but it's not too bad since we found a carpool buddy. I heard of one family in the midwest that commuted 8 hours to hoshuuko, leaving the house on Friday and driving through the night!

With any relocation everything is a trade-off, and it's hard to know what's really important to your family until you start looking around for yourselves. Best of luck to you, and if I can be of any help, feel free to ask.

[nmnita]

Yes, it can be a pretty scary place for those who are new, but there are lots of great areas. The problem might be afforability. Much of the area, especially some of the nicer areas with a heavy Asian population are pricey.

Nita

ps Torrance is nice, with a good school system if you make sure it is Torrance schools and not L.A. schools.

[urano]

Thanks fellas for your kind attention and response. Very detailed scenarios in the previous posting.

I am keeping all options open and will post the outcome of my search, we need to settle by end of october.