JapanTown SE Corner Of 5th and Jackson

Generally, I like to hang around JapanTown area; However… one particular *spot* in the Japantown area. the South East corner of 5^th and Jackson. the corner with the white angled pillar, tall rectangular rock, and the low-​slung black curved marble structure. just mystifies me.
How can a corner be decorated with *three* pieces of public-​funded statuary… and still end up looking just so damn random and cluttered and ugly? If you’re sitting on the opposite corner in front of Roy’s Coffee and Teas. you really *notice* it now.
It’s as if each succeeding piece of sculpture was carried out by an artist who just deliberately *ignored* what was *already* on that corner. to give us this God-​awful mish-​mosh.
First you notice that odd-​angled tapered and bent. uhm, «pillar,» I guess you would call it. rising about 25 feet up and tipped with a sort of green nightlight. that looks *kind of* interesting at night. but during the daytime it looks rather like a support meant to hold up the missing roof of some incompleted airport terminal or car wash.
Then there’s that rectangular rough-​cut block of pinkish-​mottled rock. which might look good if positioned *thoughtfully* in some Zen garden. But looking at it planted here on the sidewalk in front of the retail Golf store with papered-​over display windows, I just don’t quite know what to make of it.
And then there’s the long, low-​slung, polished, slightly curved block of black marble with the names of San Jose’s various historical Asian communities etched into its smooth surface. But it is *so* low-​slung as to not be sort of lost just sitting awkwardly in the middle of the sidewalk, usually invisible from across the street due to parallel parked cars, and set next to those *other* two curious pieces of sculpture that seem to have no awareness of its presence. and OH! yeah. there’s those detracting (though I suppose necessary) little metal flanges for deterring skateboarders sticking out of the sculpture at two foot intervals. ruining its surface lines.
And this whole accidental assembly of cluttered sculpture all sits on a wide part of the sidewalk against the non-​display window, brick and stucco side of the papered up golf shop. it’s. it’s. oh just check the pictures. Blecch!!!
If I were appointed aesthetics czar for that corner. I think I would start by jack-​hammering out the sidewalk and replace it with an earthen-​like layer decomposed granite (sometimes called goldfines) to at least mark this collection of disparate objects as being part of a public space and not just objects that you gotta be careful not to trip over or run into as you stroll down the sidewalk. Then because you can’t skateboard on decomposed granite without gritting up your goddamn wheels. then I would yank the skateboarder deterrent flanges out of the low-​slung black marble headstone. Then I would put a bench up against the Golf shop wall and mebe put a shade tree there so it looks like a hospitable place to hang out.
That’s what *I* would do. but what do *I* know? But Hey. this is J-​Town. a few yards down the Street is the Object Art Gallery. somebody there might have some good ideas for prettifying up this corner. This is J-​Town. there must still be a few guys around who have a nice Japanese Gardner sense of proportion and display sense.
Oh also. cluttering up that corner is this sign post with a little ear and broadcast symbol that labels itself a «Listening Station.» and gives a number. that I presume you can call on your cell phone and mebe get a little audio description of the history of the area .or maybe even the very corner on which you are standing. neat. only when you call that number. you just get an out-​of-​service message. So I say. Lose the Listening Station sign post. Otherwise. it’s just like all the other objects crowding that corner, pieces of someone’s bright idea that did not quite work out.