As small business month is quickly approaching I was thinking how wonderful and vibrant a community…read moreJapantown San Jose is. There so many seasoned and new diverse small business owners here in the heart of Japantown. Classic Loot, Zonkey, Roy's, Santo Market, Taqueria Corona, Minato, Hukilau, Kazoo are among my families favorites. We have also enjoyed and welcomed new businesses too like Banne (yummy sourdough) and Furbaby Fancy petgrooming (the most posh and elite pet grooming experience) into our rotation as well! I should have just listed all the businesses here! So proud of the businesses that contribute to our community!

There's definitely a lot of history, community love, and shops and restaurants here. It's smaller…read morethan the other Little Tokyo in LA and Japan Town in SF (I think), but because we came around midday lunch time on a Tuesday after Fanime, not many stores or restaurants were surprisingly open? Maybe it's due to being after Memorial Day or because most of them were night time dinner service only restaurants. Either way it's much cleaner than Little Tokyo in LA and with less jump scares and trash everywhere. Easier to find parking and more affordable, in a sense, than Japan Town SF. Stopped by the Japanese grocery store and Santo Market while we were here. Fun to kill a couple of hours, I suppose. I just gotta come back here again when more things are open !

"As my artist's statement explains, my work is utterly incomprehensible and is therefore full of…read moredeep significance."―Calvin San José has a long line of, shall we say, questionable Public Art (PA) projects; everybody knows about the giant dog turd statue Quetzalcoatl―or as I like to call him Quetzacaca ( goo.gl/lvswBr )―in the Plaza de César Chávez. Let's also not forget the Fallon Statue debacle ( goo.gl/wKEv0g )―and don't get me started on the mangled shopping carts (goo.gl/vbB6NE) passing for a statue on the corner of Alma Ave and Almaden Rd. Need I go on?! So, whenever CSJ does something right I love to point it out. I first read about Ursa Mater (aka Mama Penny Bear) in the Merc from my buddy Sal Pizarro's column. Ursa Mater is a gigantic piece of coin art that was put together by Hayward-based artists Mr & Mrs Ferguson. She first made an appearance at last year's Burning Man festival and is now prominently displayed in Paseo de San Antonio―just east of Plaza de César Chávez, right by Bijan Bakery. The statue of Mama Bear and her two cubs sits at least 10-12' tall and is completely covered in 200,000 pennies ($2,000 worth) to make up the bears fur. It's pretty cool to look at from afar, and even cooler up close. I suggest getting here quickly to check her out, as she will only be on display until the end of May. And then we'll be back to staring at Quetzacaca forever. FOL...

I like to think that these represent the bear on the California flag. The name Ursa Mater…read more Is an excellent play on words by the artist. Ursa Major is Latin for "greater she bear" So Ursa Mater translates roughly to "She bear of matter" ( I only understand a very small amount of Latin so this may or may not be the exact translation). The bear and her cub are made of pennies so it seems the artist's intention was to make a realistic mother bear out of " matter" , hence the name. Also behind the pennies is a concrete core. It's as if these bears have a real fur made out of metal. As the previous reviewer said, there are are a lot of bad San Jose art pieces, but this one is fantastic. Just an edit: it seems to be gone now. Very sad.

5 stars because it's free and I enjoyed my time…read more Pretty chill art museum I liked all the variations of soccer balls and one painting really caught my attention. I appreciate that it is free. They close early so go before 5pm. I was late and only had 30 minutes to end it that was enough time. I ended up sitting outside and just journaled about my day. Such a relaxing evening.

This was actually my second time ever at this museum, I came a couple years back when they had a…read morechalk festival. If you ever get the chance to come show up both days so you can see the artist outlines, and when they start everything, and then day two to see the finished product!! This particular day I went with my dad and Brother to check out what new art pieces they had. We spent about an hour walking through and looking at everything. My brother, major in art and could tell us about different types of oil/paint that was used and how it would last over certain decades or fall off and crack ! Lol so I found the history of how well each artist project with withstand the time of life very interesting as well. I will definitely come back when this gallery changes to another theme! It also has a very nice park. I just wish there was a coffee shop or Matcha shop nearby! Hee

Unfortunately too difficult to hear the words in a brewery atmosphere. Huge fan was running and the…read moreacoustics with a 40 foot ceiling were challenging. It's really too bad. The actors were putting alot of energy into the scenes. Could have been fun

Richard III was outstanding. We have consistently enjoyed attending plays adapted and performed by…read morethis engaging local company.

Epoch is a public art installation located in the City of Sunnyvale, California. Located on Java…read moreStreet and adjacent to the NetApp headquarters, it is the work of Brad J. Goldberg. Goldberg, a native of Rhode Island, specializes in large outdoor installations. His works can be massive and often incorporate element of the surrounding community into account. From the artist: "Artist Brad Goldberg sees his work as a fusion between sculpture, landscape, and the built environment. Sculptures are seen, not as isolated objects, but rather as spirit-creating components of larger spatial experiences. The desire to work with the environment as a whole allows the creation of a unique non-preconceived response to the total aspect of a place." Epoch is a fantastic instillation. Its composed of three large granite boulders that have been cut in half and arranged in a split fashion. The cut surfaces have been polished smooth and the whole face has been engraved with binary code which reflects the technological aspect of the area. I freely admit that I can still send rudimentary signals with semaphore (Thank you Boy Scouts) but binary code reading is beyond my skill so I have no idea if there is a message in teh code. However, as I was taking a picture of a snail on the surface I noticed that several words were engraved into its surface breaking up the strings of 1 and 0's. The words I found were: Change, Nature, Community, Listen, Integrity, Imagination, Evolve, Substance, See, Chaos, and Craft. The artist intent was to show "words which can be seen to align or conflict with today's technological advancements". If that was his true intent he really hit it spot on. Epoch as noted is located in a technology park and basically surrounded by office space. There is very little in the area beyond this installation and it should be treated as a stop as opposed to an outright destination. There is a light rail station right next to the street for the public tranpost inclined.

Walked by many times and didn't get to go inside until recently attended an event in the library…read more It's a huge two-story library with many seatings and it's very spacious. This is one of the nicest libraries I've been in around the area. This library is conveniently located next to the Central Park. After coming here, it's also nice to scroll around the park as well. There is also a Safeway and a few restaurants in the complex across the street (Homestead).

Massive in size!!!…read more Since I was in need of some entertainment for my toddler, a library was the best bet for my book loving little monster. The library is huge, very clean, and the staff is kind. Navigating the library is pretty easy but the staff is open to assist and answer any questions you may have. The Santa Clara City Library comes highly recommended.

For a free museum, this place is pretty cool. Especially if you are interested in microchips. They…read morehave a few interactive displays, which I appreciated. The little gift shop is a cool addition, but I was expecting them to have some fun stickers. Parking is easy, just follow the signs. The employees are also friendly and helpful. Not pet-friendly.

With time to kill this past Friday, my bf and I made a stop at this museum to check out the…read moreexhibits while in the area to watch a movie at the theater nearby. The museum offers free admission, easy visitor parking in the Intel lot, and friendly and helpful staff at entry who gave us an overview of the place before we perused the various displays on our own. The entire room was clean and organized, and even for such a small space, it didn't feel cluttered. I'm not really into tech, but I still took my time exploring the various items being showcased, while engaging with some of the interactive exhibits, like learning how Intel makes computer chips. There were quite a few hands-on stations such as the augmented reality photo booth and a card matching game allowing guests to see a processor in action. I also got to wear a bunnysuit and view Intel's gaming history, with video game consoles on display and arcade machines like Space Invaders available for visitors to play. The adjacent Intel store offered blankets, mousepads, and "floating bunny person" pens among other miscellaneous products. And we were able to get through everything (both museum and gift shop) within an hour. Nothing too exciting about this place, but if you're into tech or gaming, you'll probably appreciate it more. Plus, it doesn't cost a thing to visit.

I have come here for the Halloween special and their regular guided tours…read more For their Halloween event, I highly enjoyed it! They make a lot of effort to decorate and set up a spoooky ambiance. The cast were really into character and it was really fun. I also enjoyed their Halloween styled drinks - it truly set the mood! For the regular tours, I was pretty disappointed. For the following reasons: - tour was WAY too big (could not hear and it was hard to follow along) - tour content was a bit lacking. I came in with a rough idea of who Sarah Winchester was and didn't learn much beyond that. Might be different if you don't know anything about the area though - tour guides were kind of cranky. Our tour guide seemed pretty annoyed throughout the whole thing and I saw multiple other tour guides (ours included) yell at guests which was super awkward Nonetheless it is amazing to have such a historic landmark nearby. The staff do an amazing job of preserving it and it is very well maintained. You can tell they all take pride in working their and in conservation of the house, which was nice to see

I was here for an event and we were able to explore the house on our own. There were people around…read moreand you could ask questions about various rooms and things in the house. It was neat, but I think a guided tour would be the way to go. Some highlights were the door to nowhere, the gardens, and the great hospitality. It would also be awesome to visit at night too to really get the essence of the spiritual aspect. I hadn't heard of this place until the car ride over from the hotel, so I wasn't prepared for what was in store. I'd assume most people going here have some idea of why they're here. Overall, I enjoyed it and appreciated the beauty of the building as well as some of the stories told.

This sculpture has an intricate seek & find pattern showing elements of Asian positivity. Enjoy…read morefinding the hidden imagery! The Key shown in the attached photo allows one to locate everything within. Have fun in celebrating Asian culture!

This is a fairly new sculpture by Roger White Stoller, a 2021 art piece that looks brand new…read moregleaming in the sunlight, located at Heinlenville Park in Japantown (a park that's new as well). I'm familiar with one of his other artworks, Tetrahelix, in Mountain View, and the similarities are easily recognizable, yet the meanings behind the works are unique. The stainless steel Sheltering Wing combines different images beautifully in its design, including bamboo, lotus, butterflies, wind, and clouds, in honor of the Chinese and Japanese cultures, as well as John Heinlen, a German immigrant and landowner who welcomed Chinese immigrants from one of SJ's 5 Chinatowns that burned down in the 1880's. He helped them rebuild their community and established Heinlenville, SJ's longest lasting and final Chinatown, which ceased to exist in 1931 due to anti-Chinese immigration laws and the Great Depression. The site is located in what today is Japantown. Sheltering Wing is more than just a sculpture, it's a wonderful display of art, culture, and history.