Sake San Jose Today!

A great event is happening tonight in Japantown for all the Sake lovers out there. The best part is that it's for a great cause! All the details are below:

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Sake San Jose combines sake tasting with a walk through Historic Japantown San Jose.

WHEN:	May 24, 2012 Registration – 4:30PM Opening Ceremony – 5:00PM Sake Tasting - 5:30PM-8:30PM
WHERE:	Japantown San Jose On Jackson Street Between 3rd and 7th Streets
TICKETS:	Early Bird – $40 General Admission (Day of Event) – $50

Join us for the 7th Annual Sake San Jose event on Thursday, May 24, 2012 from 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM. Meet up with friends and family as you leisurely walk through historic Japantown San Jose (on Jackson Street, between 3rd and 7th Streets) alive with music to visit the many shops and businesses for a tasting of an assortment of both domestic and international sakes, all for a great cause. Kampai!

Registration opens at 4:30 PM with Opening Ceremony beginning at 5:00 PM.

Proceeds from Sake San Jose benefit Yu-Ai Kai Senior Service, a nonprofit senior center, in Japantown.

Wednesday Wishlist: Guadalupe River Lit With LEDs

In central Tokyo, Panasonic kicked off the inaugural Tokyo Hataru (firefly) festival by sending 100,000 solar powered LED light spheres down the Sumida River. This is also pays homage to the tradition in Japan of floating candles on the water. After seeing this, I couldn't help to think of how cool it would be to see something like this in San Jose--perhaps along the Guadalupe river or one of the lakes in San Jose. After all, we are sister cities with Okayama and have one of the three remaining Japantowns in the US.

Source: Engadget

Sama Zama is Coming to the San Pedro Square Market!

Yet another innovative concept is coming to the San Pedro Square Market. Shawn Mckenna--who has worked at 5 different Michelin Star rated restaurants--is opening up an eatery focused on healthy salads, soups, and sandwiches on freshly baked bread. His real specialty is going to be the soups, which sound phenomenal in the video below. All of the vegetables and proteins in the soups will be cooked to order and any pasta used in the soup will be made from scratch daily.

For dinner, he's going to put those 12 years of michelin-rated experience to use with innovative tapas-style small plates that will change regularly.

Sama Zama will be located across from Pizza Bocca Lupo in the El Dorado building.  Along with Loteria Taco Bar, they will bring this building to full occupancy. The Lusardi building behind the Peralta Adobe has a lot of things coming as well, and i'll provide some more details about that in a separate post later on.

1 Million Square Foot Office Campus Coming to North First

Ellis Partners is planning to build a massive Class A office campus on Orchard Parkway called 101 Tech. Currently Atmel is headquartered here in a two story building, which they are vacating in June. The plan is the renovate that building and then build 3 new 6 story buildings and a 1500 space parking garage. The total size of usable space is 956,000 sqft, making it one of the largest office developments in the Bay Area.

This location has immediate access to Light-rail, SJC, 101, and 87 and is surrounded by flagship offices for some of the largest tech companies in the world.

Source: SJBJ

Tyson Johnston at Empire Seven

from Phantom Galleries by Cherri Lakey

Back in 2009, Tyson Johnston was part of the group show at E7S called "Eaten by Wolves". His new body of work is intense and his bold illustrations layered on top of Jackson Pollock's type backgrounds are just a preview of what's to come. Tyson's current body of work incorporates alot more animals and symbolic weapons from different regions of the world. He refers to his passion for old films like Clash of the Titans. This is just one of the classics he enjoys 'til this day since it's something he watched as a kid. "The title of the show really doesn't have anything to do with the actual paintings " Tyson says. "It's just a catchy title because of the movie. However there will be some Greek mythical influences through some just to make it more fun".

Wrath of Andromeda by Tyson Johnston is on view Wednesday & Fridays noon-6pm and by appointment, May 11–25.

Empire Seven Studio
525 No. 7th Street
San Jose, CA
www.empiresevenstudios.blogspot.com/

Asian American Heritage Month at History Park Sunday, May 20 from 11 AM to 4 PM

San Jose Taiko’s Junior Taiko Performing Ensemble

to Perform at 2 PM

San José, CA – April 30, 2012 – May is Asian American Heritage Month and History San José will host a spectrum of activities at History Park on Sunday, May 20, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

To celebrate May as Asian American Heritage, and in partnership with HSJ, San Jose Taiko’s youth program, the Junior Taiko Performing Ensemble, will perform at 2 PM. There also will be Samarai hat-making, Vietnamese lanterns, Chinese drums and more.

Also Dig Into  San José’s Past with Stanford Archaeology Center students at History Park. The students will assist visitors by conducting a mock excavation, screening,  artifact identification and artifact reconstruction.

This family educational program will allow individuals to collect stickers for each activity to place in Archaeology Passports and become ‘certified’ as a Junior Archaeologist. The trolley will be available for a ride around the park, as well as handcar rides. Other activities will include visits to the Print Shop and live music by Fiddle Road throughout the afternoon.

Making fish kites will help celebrate Japanese Children’s Day, and Chinese dragon hats will coincide with the reading of Chinese folk tales, such as Tales of a Chinese Grandmother.

Coincidentally, this year on May 4^th marks the 125^th anniversary of the fire that destroyed downtown San José’s Chinatown, where today’s Fairmont Hotel stands on Market Street. John Heinlen, a local businessman, braved death threats to lease property to the displaced Chinese people at Taylor and Sixth Streets. It then became known as Heinlenville, in what is today’s Japantown in San Jose.

As  affiliates of History San José, the Ng Ching Gung of the Chinese Heritage Cultural Project (CHCP) and the Immigrant Resettlement & Cultural Center (IRCC), the Museum of the Boat People & Republic of Vietnam , located inside History Park, will be open.

For more information call 408 918-1047 or visit www.historysanjose.org

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About History San José: 

History San José is a non-profit organization that collects, preserves and celebrates the stories of diversity and innovation in San José and the Santa Clara Valley. HSJ manages one of the largest and most comprehensive regional history collections in the State of California, from 1784 Spanish governmental records to twenty-first century Silicon Valley technology. 

History San José     1650 Senter Road     San José, CA  95112       408.287.2290

www.historysanjose.org

Downtown San Jose Event: Arts and Crafts Fair!

from feed/http://www.sanpedrosquaremarket.com/CMS/UI/Modules/BizBlogger/rss.aspx?tabid=211291&moduleid=341923&maxcount=25

The forecast is Sunny and just in time too because we are happy to announce that from 10 am- 4pm on May 20^th, at San Pedro Square Market you can come and enjoy the arts and crafts fair put on by TFM Endeavors. It is a way for local artists to show off their talent! Come enjoy original handmade arts and crafts and even get a chance to purchase these unique items for yourselves or give them as gifts! It is for all ages so bring the family and there is no cost at all!  We look forward to seeing you here rain or shine!

May 2012 Downtown Dimension Highlights

Here are my notes from the latest edition of Downtown Dimension:

• The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has awarded the Downtown Doors program a $25,000 grant. Zero1 and MACLA also received funding.
• Lots of great events are happening downtown this summer:
• Starlight Cinemas
• Dine Downtown
• Family Day at the San Jose Museum of Art
• Starting May 15th, the Downtwown PBID is bringing 2 off-duty police officers to patrol down time 4 hours a days, 4-5 times per week. The main goal is to reduce "quality-of-life" crimes, respond to calls from business/property owners, and work with Growndwerx to assist Downtown patrons.
• 1stACT has developed a Small Wonders Innovation Fund for projects to activate Downtown streets such as new events, exhibits, interactive projectsions, art projects, and live performances.
• The SJDA and San Jose Jazz are joining forces to expand the 32nd annual Blues Festival on July 14th at St. James Park.
• The Friday Farmer's Market is back for it's 20th Season!  It is located along San Pedro Square. (There is also a new Saturday Market, you have 2 to choose from!)
• Back A Yard Caribbean American Grill is now open and features authentic Jerk Chicken.

To read the full newsletter, click here!