Japanese supermarkets and communities?

Hi Everyone!

Can anyone recommend areas to live in London that have Japanese supermarkets or communities of Japanese people? I am being asked to relocate to London and I will be working in Zone 1 near Regent's park. We will have just had a baby and I would like to be able to give my wife some comfort with things that are familiar.

Thanks for the help!

I don't know about communities, but there is a big shop off of Piccadilly Circus called the Japan Centre.  It has OK selection, though you won't find anything to match a real Japanese supermarket, and it's a bit pricey for some things.  There are bound to be smaller neighbourhood shops that have a mix of Japanese, Korean, Chinese, etc, products as well.

www.japancentre.com

Biggest Japanese community in London is around the Japanese school in Ealing Common, ( http://www.thejapaneseschool.ltd.uk/nihonjingakko/index.html ) there are several Japanese supermarkets and restaurants all within walking distance, a Japanese hair salon and a Japanese estate agents, amongst other things. Literally 2/3rds of the people that lived on my street were Japanese.

Ealing has quite a large Japanese community in London as well as a school. There are several shops and restaurants including a decent sushi place.


http://www.thejapaneseschool.ltd.uk/

http://tamarindandthyme.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/kiraku-that-other-japanese-restaurant-in-ealing-common/


x-post with CB

Thanks for starting this thread jrbinjapan! I am moving to the UK with my wife from Japan in early March. This will definitely be helpful. Subscribing to this post!

There used to be a big Japanese shopping centre in North London, I think it was Yaohan Plaza, but its closed now. I live in Manchestelr and have several Japanese girlfriends, they have found a big community here and there is a weekly Japanese school for their kids. Good luck!