Japantown

Having worked in San Jose's Japantown for over 3 years now, I've seen the area change so much. When I first started working here, my shop was getting steady foot traffic, holiday-time was out of control busy, and I quickly assumed that this was the norm. Well, it was the norm up until that point, but things went downhill fast! Our busy days now are like our normal days were back then. The internet has made consumers more savvy (or lazy), trendy shops like Maido in Santana Row draw away our casual customers, and, in general, there are FEW areas in San Jose conducive to leisurely walking and windowshopping. Certainly, Japantown's mere 2 blocks don't contain enough draw to bring out that many walkers and shoppers.

Soon enough, Dobashi, a decades-old family run market, closed. 2 storefronts across the street from Bamboo 7 remained empty for months on end. And, as usual, the old Nishioka Bros. building (pictured above) remained condemned and subject to repeated vandalism.

There was a ray of hope when it was announced that Nijiya, a small Japanese market chain, would be moving into the old Dobashi location. Nijiya has, in fact, done quite well for itself, but the extra foot traffic the rest of the neighborhood received last only a few weeks, and now all of the Nijiya-goers seem to make a beeline for Nijiya and don't wander the rest of J-town's 2 blocks.

It was announced last month that Soko Hardware would be closing down. It was sad to see another one of the old neighborhood staples close up, but the sad fact is that they can't compete with the big chain stores. These comments on yelp about Soko's poor selection don't necessarily reflect Soko's actually poor selection, as much as they do the fact that isn't financially feasible for a mom 'n' pop shop to compete with the big boys anymore.


Now the old city maintenance yard on 6th street has been demolished, and rumor has it that it's going to be replaced with a large housing development (13 stories or something?). I really hope that it's some sort of mixed residential/commercial space, because that would bring a lot of great foot traffic to the area.