Japanese culture in Denver? (Aurora, Parker: houses, neighborhoods, preschool)

[movingforward11]

Hello

Does anyone know where in the Denver area most Japanese culture and people are concentrated?

We've heard about Sakura Square - is it a thriving community? Are there festivals, supermarkets, and the like? Or elsewhere in Denver and the surrounding suburbs? We're also looking for bilingual schools and preschools.

Any information is greatly appreciated!

[vegaspilgrim]

Originally Posted by movingforward11

We've heard about Sakura Square- is it a thriving community? Are there festivals, supermarkets, and the like? Or elsewhere in Denver and the surrounding suburbs? We're also looking for bilingual schools and preschools.

"Sakura Square" is not much really, just one building in the NE part of downtown.

[livecontent]

Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim

"Sakura Square" is not much really, just one building in the NE part of downtown.

I have to respectively disagree.

Sakura Square has much to offer. There is a residential building, Tamai Towers, which houses many aged Japanese Residents, some retail stores, good Japanese/Asian food market Asian Food, Japanese Food, Japanese Gifts This is good large Asian market and has been there for many years and I have been both a retail and wholesale customer. There is a very large Buddhist Temple. This buddhist Temple serves a cultural center for this Japanese Community TSDBT

The cherry blossom festival is coming up Cherry Blossom Festival at Sakura Square. It is a nice event to attend, especially the food in the basement of the Buddhist Church. Also, go on a tour of the temple--very interesting.

There is a large presence of Japanese in Colorado especially in areas around Brighton and areas north of Denver, where they contribute heavily to the agricuture in the area. If you go north on I-287 you will run into Japanese run product stands in the summer.

I live near a Japanese Methodist Church Home Page (http://www.gbgm-umc.org/simpsonumc-arvada/ - broken link) which has many festivals. I enjoy going there for the Japanese Food Festival. Yes, I always know where the food can be found.

In addition, there is a Japanese run University in Denver on South Federal, Teikyo Loretto Heights University TLHU. There are many events held at the campus.

People from Japan have been in Colorado since the 1880s--so they have long historical and cultural roots.

Livecontent

[tfox]

The largest Asian supermarkets are mainly concentrated in southwest Denver, south Federal and Alameda area, there's about half a dozen large supermakets there. However, these supermarkets, while they carry a number of Japanese products, are mostly Chinese and Vietnamese run.

[Mike78613]

When I was in Aurora, I saw couple of Korean shopping markets.

[movingforward11]

Great responses and enormously helpful.

Say, since it looks statistically like urban Denver is more diverse, and the suburbs less so, would that be a comfortable place to live? I've also heard that the Aurora area is pretty diverse as well.

The Asian supermarkets, even if not Japanese, would still be helpful.

Live Content, thanks for the very detailed info. So it seems there is a small but closeknit Japanese community in the Denver region.

I saw this article in my research on the Denver Post site:
Census: Colorado's changing faces - The Denver Post

"The Japanese population is the only group that declined, from 11,571 to 9,652 during that time."

Stats I've seen put about 2000 in Denver. I wonder where the majority live and where the rest of the 10,000 live. Any guess why the population is declining while other Asian groups are on the increase?

[celes_18]

I would say Denver has a much larger Korean / Vietnamese culture then Japanese. Sakura square is nice as is the cherry blossom festival but the square itself has a very limited amount of shops and several places in the building are closed and have been for a long while. The Cherry blossom festival is interesting but the majority of the booths that end up being their have little to do with Japanese culture. Its a good side diversion and Denver does have some Japanese culture but I wouldn't say theres a whole bunch.
I noticed from your previous posts you might be looking for a place where Japanese culture would play a part in your children's education and wont break the bank. I don't think you'll find many places like that if any in Denver. I love our city but we are missing certain aspects if you're primarily interested in Japanese culture. The pockets I've found have been far between and mostly found on the internet. Other then California where you were looking at Hawaii has a large Japanese population as does Newyork. Notable neighborhoods can be found on this link : Japanese American - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[BlueWillowPlate]

When I was teaching preschool in Denver, every year there were Japanese doctors doing residencies at various hospitals. Some were just there for a year, others longer.
Obviously these docs were parents, and these parents banded together as a community, but also sought existing Japanese-Americans.
One thing you might do is contact Colorado Budokan. The people who run that place might be able to direct you to other resources.

[tomotom]

Here is Japanese community website in Denver.
http://www.denverjapan.com]Denver Japan

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There is a huge Asian SuperMarket called the "Hmart" on the corner of Parker Road (hwy 83) and Yale. It is surrounded by many other Asian businesses so there must be a large concentration in that area of town. I'm not too familiar with the housing around the Hmart because I don't live there. I do however go there weekly for my shopping. Vegetables are always fresh, huge assortment of extremely fresh fish, including live, if you prefer, plus an assortment of other items you simply cant find at most markets.

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