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Held in spring each year. Combines sake tasting with a walk through historic Japantown.
Museum of Science and Technology
A great interactive experience for all ages and backgrounds. The Tech Museum allows visitors to see how technology affects their daily lives through 130,000 square feet of hands-on activities, exploratory labs and design challenge experiences. Permanent exhibits focus on the Internet, the human body, and innovation. You'll also find an IMAX Theater, a cafe, and a retail store featuring merchandise unique to the Silicon Valley.
Recognized for its contemporary collection of modern art, which highlights movements on the West Coast as well as national and international pieces. The museum started as a small civic art gallery in 1969 and has grown in step with its city.
Designed by architects Richard Meier & Partners, the City Hall, opened in 2005, consists of a free standing glass rotunda at the center, a council chambers wing to the south, and a separate tower to the east. Tours are available.
A partnership between the City of San Jose and San Jose State University, the King Library opened in 2003 as the largest new library west of the Mississippi, with and 1.5 million items. No ID is needed to use materials within the library, but if you want to check them out, or use public-access computers or WiFi, you must apply for a free library card (available to residents and non-residents alike, but you need a photo ID). Special non-circulating collections on the 5th floor (with limited hours, M–Sa) include, among others: Beethoven Center, housing historical keyboard instruments and the largest collection of Beethoven materials outside Europe; Center for Steinbeck Studies, with more than 40,000 items—manuscripts, letters, films, photos, etc.— of writer John Steinbeck.
The first museum in the US to focus on quilts and textiles, the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles has an outstanding collection on a rotating display. Exhibitions change quarterly at this exciting and modern museum.
A four-block pedestrian-only space, lined with shops, hotels, casual and fast-food restaurants, and the Camera 12 Cinemas. At the Market Street end, an oversized bronze table features memories and writings of Mexican immigrant, activist, and SJSU professor Ernesto Galarza.