Koi at San Jose’s Japanese Friendship Garden need more help
The koi at San Jose’s Japanese Friendship Garden could use another helping hand from the community.
The Coyote Creek flood in February 2017 devastated the garden at Kelley Park, flooding the picturesque venue’s tea house and damaging the filtering system and pumps for the koi ponds. The surviving koi were moved to one pond, and the nonprofit San Jose Parks Foundation installed two temporary, portable filters for the pond in 2018. But those filters, which weren’t really planned for more than five years of use, will soon need to be replaced as well.
The Parks Foundation is in the midst of a campaign to raise $18,000 to do just that. An anonymous donor has offered to match up to $7,500 in contributions made through the end of January.
San Jose Parks Foundation Executive Director James Reber said the general state of the koi is relatively good, but the city is still waiting for funding and a contractor to install a permanent water pump and filtering system. Last year, the community responded to the foundation’s call to fund a special holding tank to protect baby koi at the garden from hungry birds, and Reber hopes people will step up to help the colorful fish again. Donations can be made at www.sanjoseparks.org.
The koi have been a feature of the garden — modeled after the Korakuen Garden in Okayama, San Jose’s sister city in Japan — since 1966, a year after it was dedicated. And this isn’t the first time San Jose’s koi have been challenged. A virus in 2009 wiped out more than 200 fish in the ponds.
FAMILY POLITICS: Santa Clara County has had a few families with multiple members serving in elected office, but it’s at least unusual to have two generations serving on different city councils at the same time. And, in a space dominated my men, it’s refreshing to see a mother-daughter combination this time around.
We’re talking about Rosemary Kamei, who was elected to the San Jose City Council last year and was nominated to be vice mayor, and her daughter, Ellen Kamei, who is on her second term on the Mountain View City Council and served as mayor in 2021.
Before winning her election in June’s primary, Rosemary Kamei had previously served on the Santa Clara Valley Water District board of directors and the Santa Clara County board of education, providing a strong role model for her daughter. “It comes from a lot of community engagement in our family,” she said. “As a parent, you hope that you’re children are prepared to do whatever they are going to do in life, but I’m very proud.”
MUSICAL TASTE OF ITALY: The Mission Chamber Orchestra of San Jose will delve into the works of composers from North and South America of Italian descent at its next concert, Jan. 29 at the Italian American Heritage Foundation’s Cultural Center in downtown San Jose.
The program includes works by Romeo Cascarino, Joseph Curiale and Jeremy Cavaterra. But there are also a couple of familiar names for Northern California classical music fans: Louise Canepa from the Monterey area and the late Henry Mollicone, founder of the Winchester Orchestra in San Jose. Brian Holmes, another local favorite who has played with the San Jose Symphony and Opera San Jose, will perform the horn solo on Mollicone’s “Horn Concerto.”
Tickets to the 3 p.m. concert, at 425 N. Fourth St., are $25 for general admission, with discounts for seniors and students. Go to www.missionchamber.org for details.
HOCKEY COUNTRY: The audience at Tech CU Arena on Jan. 20 will be praying for no overtime, as Matt Stell is set to headline a concert following the San Jose Barracuda game against the San Diego Gulls, part of the “Cuda Country” promotion from radio station Bay Country (94.5). The game also will feature Austin artist George Birge, who’ll perform during warmups and during game breaks. For schedule and ticket details, go to www.sjbarracuda.com.