Japantown — San Jose
We lived 2 blocks from Japantown. San Jose's Japantown was first built in the 1890's and is one of three original Japantowns remaining in the United States. In the summer my brothers, sister and I would walk to Japantown for a snow cone. The storekeeper would get a large block of ice from the freezer and put it on a vertical lathe that shaved the ice into snow and he would then scoop it into a paper cup and pour syrup over the top. It was a real treat on a hot day. It was a lot of work to make. We enjoyed walking through the stores looking at all the exotic dolls and lacquer ware. The shopkeepers would watch us very closely. They were afraid we would break something but they always treated us with respect. I still love eating Japanese food. I found a lot of information about San Jose's Japantown on line.
http://www.japantownsanjose.org/ http://www.spiritofjapantownfestival.com
Japantown history:
http://www.smithfu.com/gallery_nihonmachi.htm
Japanese baseball team in San Jose
http://thediamondangle.com/archive/jan04/sjnb/
Japanese internment during World War II
http://www.jamsj.org/articles.html
Japantown Banner
This is the oldest building in Japantown and is located on Sixth street. It was built in the 1880's.
The Buddhist temple on 5th Street