Welcome to a new year and to San Jose, California.
Welcome
San Jose Taiko Mural
The mural is attractive, yes. However, to be super impressed, take any opportunity at all to listen and to see the San Jose Taiko drummers in action. That is AMAZING! This is one of the most recognized Taiko groups in the world outside of Japan.
Guadalupe River Bridge
Dancing Pig
Possibly the most popular neon sign in San Jose is this one for a company that has not been active for years. The beloved sign, however, with its dancing neon light pig has been preserved.
Music Mural and Memorial
Wavy Flower Mural
Blue O’s Under Highway 87
Clouds in the Windows
Life is a Circus
“Life is a Circus” lions at the light rail station on West San Fernando Street. If you walk around them and look a little closer, you will see more oddity than just their colorful bodies.
Andy’s Pet Shop
This is the building that Andy’s Pet Shop use to be in on The Alameda in San Jose.
I am so glad that they still have some mural there as they once did. When I was a kid, though, the entire side of the building was an animal mural similar to the smaller homage that you see above the windows now. Can you imagine?
That previous and larger version of the mural was the very first mural I remember being aware of as a child. It was the one that would get pointed out to me by family if we drove by it. “Look, there is the pet shop!” It is a special place in that sense as the first public artwork that I was shown regularly and eventually would begin to look out for and notice for myself.
Today, Andy’s Pet Shop has moved a ways down the street and La Dolce Velo bike shop has the building now. Thankfully, they also appear to appreciate murals.
