ANA (All Nippon Airways) Moves to San Jose

Well, the ANA news continues to get better and better. Their five-times-per-week direct flight between San Jose and Tokyo kicks off January 11th on a brand new 787 Dreamliner. Now they have announced that they are going to move from the San Francisco area to Gateway Place in San Jose, very close to SJC. This is a positive sign that if things go well with this flight they may double down on San Jose and add more routes and flights. There is already talk of making the direct flight to Tokyo 7 days a week instead of 5 in the summer.

Holiday Festivities at Evergreen Village Square

A quick heads up that there is a Holiday event at the Evergreen Village Square today:

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This Saturday, December 8th, from 1pm to 3 pm. Free pictures with Santa! Take home a professional 5x7 photo with Santa! Face painting! Fabulous Holiday Entertainment Program by the famous Cotton Candy Express with Lori & RJ!   Plus much more!  Don't miss it!

Followed at 4:30 by The Festival of Lights! 

More info on the Evergreen Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/pages/Evergreen-Village/138625382867090?ref=tn_tnmn#!/pages/Evergreen-Village/138625382867090

Saturday Stats: San Jose is the Healthiest City for Women

San Jose made it into another top 10 list, and this one has nothing to do with salaries. 84% of women in San Jose exercise, only 8% smoke, 99.8% wear a seat belt, and in general women here eat far more fruits and vegetables than the average American. All these stats led San Jose to be proclaimed the top healthiest city for women in the country. The net result of the data above is a life span that is 3 years longer than average in the country.

That life span should get even longer in the future given the many billions of dollars of new investment into medical care happening throughout Silicon Valley hospitals. Another positive future factor is leading the country in hybrid and electric vehicle adoption, which will reduce pollution despite population increases.

Top 10 List
1.) San Jose, CA
2.) Bethesda, MD
3.) San Francisco, CA
4.) Santa Barbara, CA
5.) Honolulu, HI
6.) Santa Ana, CA
7.) Minneapolis, MN
8.) Fargo, ND
9.) Portland, ME
10.) Burlington, VT



Source: Self

Our Christmas in the Park Tree!

Seasons Greetings! 

Have you and your family or friends been downtown to check out Christmas in the Park this year? Well if not, the next time you're down there.. see if you can find The San Jose Blog's tree! That's right, we've got a tree!

In November, I set out to create ornaments for our tree. As a photographer, I've taken a ton of photos that showcase various details, buildings, people, or events that make up San Jose and the surrounding cities in Santa Clara County. I thought these photos could make for some fun ornaments.

The Process

I went through my photos and picked out shots that I felt represented the area: the cherry blossom trees and street banners in Japantown, the Silicon Valley Roller Girls, San Jose State, City Hall, The Tech Museum, San Pedro Square Market, Santana Row, San Jose Taiko, and much more. I had them printed (FedEx/Kinkos, simple, on paper thicker than normal printer paper) and cut them out in 4x4 squares. 

Next up - a trip to Tap Plastics! I needed to make these weather-proof, and while I could have laminated them, I wanted them to have some heft. I bought 4x4 acrylic squares. 

Back home, I Mod-Podged the photos to the acrylic squares. My apartment was quite stinky after doing that! (I had to glue a sheet of cardstock down before applying the photo as well.)

After they dried for a few days, I turned them over and glued hand-bent wire hooks to each piece. Dry.. dry.. dry.. and DONE.

One last item was, admittedly an experiment, had to be added the day I decorated the tree itself. 

I purchased batteries and LED lights to place on the back of each ornament. My hope was the light would show up on the edges of the clear tile as well as illuminate the back of the tile too.

Added some sparkly garland, some small colorful ball ornaments, and a big silver bow on top - our decorations were complete!

Now, this may seem a little out of order, but the last thing I placed on the tree was the two strands of Christmas lights that were provided to us by the Christmas in the Park organization. For such a large tree, two strands really didn't feel like much, but hey, that's what we were provided!

Fast forward to the big tree lighting ceremony. They played holiday music and special guests including Kristi Yamaguchi and Santa made an appearance. After the giant tree was lit, my husband and I made our way to the TSJB tree.

Upon seeing it, my heart sank. Only one of the two strands of lights worked. Our tree was in the dark and you couldn't really see anything on it. 

But, there is a happy ending! While the lights were never replaced by CITP, they did grant us permission to use our own SOLAR lights. So we're not even using the PG&E provided juice for our tree! 

Last night we were able to replace the lights and now we have a tree with a ton of little twinkle lights! (We are, however, missing our silver bow.. lost forever it seems!)

Hope you can check out our tree and all the other ones in the park - there are some really amazing and fun trees out there! If you'd like to see more photos, including some detail shots of some of the ornaments, check them out here.

Here's one more photo of Josh and I posing in front of the tree!

Happy Holidays everyone!

South FIRST FRIDAYS Art Walk Tonight!

from Phantom Galleries by Cherri Lakey

It's all about the holiday spirit for tonight's South FIRST FRIDAYS Art Walk!


Over 50 artists from KALEID Gallery and artists from the greater South Bay area will be offering original works of art and creative gifts affordably priced for the holidays! Excellent time to purchase unique, locally created works by talented artists for holiday gifts or to add to your own collection!


Image courtesy of the artist, Jenna Barjam
Closing Reception for The More the Merrier III Art Exhibition & Sale at the Art Ark Gallery. This Salon-Style exhibition showcases the work of 48 bay area artists. This is a great place to start your holiday shopping. Most art is priced under $100! Live music by the Clifford Lamb Duo


Ro (France), "Coit", ink, acid, engraving on photo of Ro's street art
FRESH PRODUCE 12th Annual Invitational Group Exhibition & Affordable Art Sale at Anno Domini Gallery.
30+ Artists from 14 countries have created hundreds of original works of art for this highly anticipated annual exhibition and affordable art sale. The artists were invited based on their unique artistic vision and contribution to urban contemporary arts and culture. Holiday cheer provided by DJ Boboso.

For more information on exhibitions at all 20 venues, please visit www.southfirstfridays.com
South FIRST FRIDAYS Art Walk
First Friday December 7th, 7-11pm
free and open to the public

Megabus Found the Way to San Jose

An express bus company offering city-to-city services is coming to Diridon Station in Downtown San Jose. The buses themselves are "state-of-the-art" double deckers with WiFi, outlets, and climate control. I'm glad to see more 2-story buses being used in the area besides the corporate shuttles that Google, Apple, and Facebook use.

Megabus fares start at $1 and their first route from San Jose goes to LA. The price sounded too good to be true so I went to their site and put in some random dates for a trip. One direction did indeed qualify for the $1 rate and the other was only $3.

The first trips begin on Dec 12th and $1 trips will be available for ALL seats during the first week of service. For more info and to book, check out the Megabus website over here.

Source: The Merc

Zscaler Raises $38M

Zscaler is a San Jose-based maker of cloud security products with about 2,500 customers. Their product scans internet traffic at a company site and applies that company's security policies to that data.

This $38M infusion is their first outside round. Until now they have been entirely run on internal investment. The money is going to be used to expand sales, marketing, and product development. Sounds like that means more job openings. The company also announced that they are cash flow positive which is always a good sign.

Source: SJBJ

Downtown San Jose Restaurant List Updates! (Q4 2012 Edition)

I am trying to update the Downtown San Jose Restaurants database more regularly now. We are up to an impressive 234 eateries, which is easily the largest number of restaurants Downtown San Jose has ever had and very likely the largest concentration of restaurants anywhere in Silicon Valley (including Downtown Palo Alto, Mountain View, Campbell, and Los Gatos).

No bad news this quarter, no major closures. A Perfect Finish is being remodeled and is going to relaunch as 55 South Market.

Now the good news.

• Many New San Pedro Square Market Eateries - I added Sama-Zama, Treatbot, Loteria Taco Bar, CaliDog, Phonomental, and Polkadotz Mini Gourmet Cupcakes to the list. If you haven't been to the Market in the past couple months, you won't believe how many more options there are. The amount of quality eats here is helping put Downtown on the map for South Bay foodies.
• The Blackbird Tavern - This is my most highly anticipated restaurant opening in the queue right now. If anyone can turn around the corner lot that hosted Zing, Asquew Grill, and Ruffled Feathers Eatery... it's these guys from the Naglee Park Garage. Similar to the Original Gravity House, this can be a game changer. Expect an outstanding beer selection, tapas, live music, and a laid back atmosphere right in the middle of Downtown San Jose (across the street from where the Muji flagship Japanese retail store will go and next to Camera 12 and the Fairmont)
• Dosa & Curry Cafe - Not only is this a quality Indian restaurant with reasonable prices, they have updated their hours so that they are open until 3am Thurs through Sat! As far as I know, this is the only Indian Restaurant in Silicon Valley (maybe even in the Bay Area) open this late.

As for the latest status update on my mission to eat at every single restaurant in Downtown San Jose... I'm at 220 out of 234, or 94%. I think 2013 will be the year I complete my culinary goal, but the real question is which restaurant should I save for last?

Below is the changelog from the Downtown San Jose Restaurants Database:

• 11/11/2012 Updated Dosa & Curry Cafe's hours, first San Jose Indian restaurant open until 3am
• 12/2/2012 Added Treatbot Factory, Sama-Zama, Loteria Taco Bar, CaliDog, Phonomenal, and Polkadotz Mini Gourmet Cupcakes to the list (all in San Pedro Square Market)
• 12/2/2012 Punjab Cafe has expanded and added a new Indian Ice Cream shop
• 12/2/2012 A Perfect Finish has remodeled into 55 South First

If you haven't bookmarked it yet, here's the link to the spreadsheet! There is also a permanent link over to the right entitled Downtown San Jose Restaurants.