Sakura Gakuen

We ended up taking our daughter out of the school. It ended up being a little too early for us on Saturday mornings, 9am.
The school was amazing at incorporating the Japanese culture in all the events and in the classroom. My daughter really really really loved her teacher. Her teacher was very kind. It seemed like they had about 4 — 5 events within our 6 month attendance. This allowed us to learn so much about the Japanese culture. I would attend their events again.
They ask for parent cooperation. It’s not required though. Parents have a say (vote) in a lot of aspects of the school, which is nice. They are a pretty transparent school.
We might return in a few years. Check out their website for events and fundraisers.

With a long history of teaching Japanese in the Sacramento area, Sakura Gakuen is pretty much the best spot to follow up for instructor based Japanese language learning. Kids classes (kinder through high school) are run on Saturdays with native Japanese instructors teaching. Adults classes (starting at high school age, ranging from conversational to advanced) are taught during the week.
The classes are at the Sacramento Buddhist church annex and they also have a lot of cultural events that use the temple grounds. The kids class intent seems to be more cultural exposure as opposed to language development, but that depends on the teacher and the kids level.
They are fairly heavy volunteer driven, with parents required to work shifts selling snacks and monitoring recess, during the year. Additionally, for those that have interest, you can apply to your local high school to get language credit.

This place can introduce you to the culture of Japan in a fun and engaging manner. The program assists in learning the culture and the language in an enjoyable way. The age range varies from toddlers to grown-​ups. The teachers are caring about the students and their education. I would recommend this place to anyone wanting to learn Japanese.

My children have been students at this school for two years. And we absolutely LOVE the program, the teachers and the community! I am bilingual and had been trying to teach my children Japanese since they were born with very limited results. I was giving up on my children ever being bilingual when I stumbled across Sakura Gakuen.
I had heard of other schools in the area, but they are geared toward native Japanese with native parents that are just living in the U.S. temporarily, so my children would never qualify to be students at those schools. Unlike those schools for natives only, Sakura Gakuen offers a comprehensive Japanese language program for beginners through bilingual.
My children not only enjoy attending school (even though it’s on Saturday!), but they have learned so much that my 10 year old can now read and write more than I can. I believe the excellent results are due to the faculty being native Japanese with a background in teaching Japanese as a second language. Their expertise is evident in the results they get in such a short amount of time.
By the time my kids are in high school they will be fluent in Japanese and ready to tackle Spanish! Because they learned a second language before puberty they have a better chance of learning additional languages with ease. In addition to the benefit of being bilingual and possibly trilingual by the time they finish high school, there is the benefit it will have on their college applications.
One of the things I appreciate the most about the school is that it incorporates a huge amount of cultural learning and experiences without diminishing the ultimate goal of learning how to speak, read and write Japanese.