2025-2026 Senior Year
Issue 8: 🪷🎋⛩️Hakone Gardens(#18) (NEW INSTALLMENT!)
Nestled in the drier forests just beyond historic Downtown Saratoga lies a 17-acre expanse of Japanese gardens, peppered with Edo-style housing and zen gardens to spare. Since its construction as a private Japanese garden by Isabel Stine in 1917, the Hakone Gardens have become a staple in Silicon Valley culture as a semi-occluded destination for mellow birthday parties and wedding receptions alike. For the penultimate destination of The Daily Explorer, I venture into these gardens alone: a tribute to my first adventure, way back in sophomore year. Join me on this issue’s trip to Hakone Gardens—though I’ll be your only guide, this time—to appreciate the tranquil reflections the koi pond will bring.
Issue 7: 😂🎭🏈ComedySportz (#17)
Just to the side of Oakridge Mall in South San Jose, an improv venue is tucked between a pizza parlor and thrift shop. If you can’t quite locate it, just follow the sounds of raucous laughter past a mural of mid-performance snapshots and a faux hedge-wall, into the secret arena of comedy long-enjoyed by the city’s residents. This is ComedySportz, the longest-running show in the Bay Area, where two teams of improv professionals compete for points and the audience’s laughter alike. Being an improv show, every night is different from the last, with new teams, referees, and prompts from the small audience. Join The Shield journalists Mia Hanuska, Laura Lipscei, Gio Arteaga, Logan Mendelson, Logan Whiteson, Wes Adams, and guest journalist Max Hesterman from the Berkeley High Jacket as we duck into this hole-in-the-wall comedy stadium to enjoy what ComedySportz has to offer tonight. 🎭
Issue 6: 🚈🌉⛸️BART-ing About (#16)
A long-underappreciated pillar of the Bay Area, BART (short for Bay Area Rapid Transit) connects the towering urban jungle of San Francisco to suburban San Jose and college-town Berkeley alike with a vast expanse of both underground and aboveground rails. “No car? No problem,” reads many of their advertisements in the train cars. This issue, we are joined by another journalist—not a member of The Shield as per usual, but a journalist from the Berkeley High Jacket, Max Hesterman. Together, we explore the vast urban jungle of San Francisco and Berkeley alike, thanks to our good friend BART. 🌉
Issue 5: 🩰🎄🐭The San Jose Nutcracker(#15)
As the red velvet curtain rises and the orchestral melodies warble in the air, the crowd is silent, enraptured by the practiced precision of the dancers’ every arabesque, leap, and en-pointe maneuver. This is The Nutcracker, the beloved Christmastime ballet, presented by the New Ballet company. However, instead of the traditional Russian aesthetics, the San Jose Nutcracker reinterprets the Nutcracker set in early 20th century San Jose, acknowledging and honoring the history behind our beloved valley. Thanks to the generous staff at the New Ballet, editor Mia Hanuska joins me on an extraordinary journey to San Jose, 1905 to witness this creatively adapted classic, The San Jose Nutcracker.🩰
Issue 4: 🌙🕯️🌅Water Lantern Festival(#14)
The water is calm in Almaden Lake Park tonight. All along a sandy shoreline, floating paper lanterns emit a flickering ochre light upon the lake’s reflective face.On some, there’s written poetry: on others, the names of deceased loved ones. No matter the designs, the lanterns float away from the shore just the same, shrinking in the distance until they join the line of lanterns at the far-off barrier in the middle of the lake. For the 14th issue of The Daily Explorer, writers Mia Hanuska, Logan Mendelson, Gio Arteaga, Laura Lipcsei, and Logan Whiteson, and alumni writer Isa Hunter-Quintero join me to enjoy the unique, meditative, and highly romantic Water Lantern Festival in San Jose. 🌅
⭐Issue 3: 👻🪦🎃The Rebel Yell Haunted House (#13)
Swathes of blushing leaves tumble to the earth as the weather turns colder. Leering pumpkins stare at huddled passerby with toothy grins and wide carved eyes, while suspicious shadows lurk in every dark corner. In the neighborhood behind Branham High School, past a winding mess of suburban roads, joyful and terrified screams emanate from a curious house on Rebel Way. Returning once again for its 26th anniversary, the Rebel Yell Haunted House brings impressive terror to this coming Halloween season. 🎃
⭐Issue 2: 🥂🌹🚋The Gatsby Picnic (#12)
Every year, the 1920s trundles back into the Bay Area, complete with a horde of smartly-dressed ladies and gentlemen, flapper dancing in wool swimsuits, and vintage car shows. Usually, this zone of anachronism confines itself to an elegant park in Oakland, but this year, Gatsby and his crew have decided to grace San Jose through History Park. Join our writers for this issue of The Daily Explorer to step back into the 1920s: complete with trolleys, silent movies, and of course, lots of Charlestons. 🥂
Issue 1:🏮🎎🍡Obon Festival (With Host Kathryn Tanaka) (#11)
In San Jose, Obon is a two-day event, held to honor loved ones who have passed away by hanging lanterns and dancing Bon Odori, but it has also become a place for old friends to simply reconnect. 🏮
2024-2025 Junior Year
⭐Issue 8: ⚛️🌉🦖CalAcademy of Sciences (#10)
In the fog-choked distance, the rust-red spires of the Golden Gate Bridge rise above the winding San Francisco streets. On the very tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, in the Golden Gate Park, sits the sprawling campus of the CalAcademy of Sciences. In this issue, for which I have been anticipating since the beginning of the year, writers Gio Arteaga, Averi Halbert, Laura Lipcsei, and Kathryn Tanaka will be joining me on a field trip to sunny San Francisco.🌉
Issue 7: 🚶♀️🌳☀️Almaden Quicksilver Park (#9)
Just a 15 minute drive from the heart of San Jose, undisturbed Californian hills of Buckeye flowers, Goldenback ferns and crooked, hermit-like Oak trees rise to face the largely urban landscape. For the ninth installment of The Daily Explorer, Mia Hanuska, along with Westmont students Sergio Macian and Sarah Ruebenson, join me on a 5.2 hike in Almaden Quicksilver in South San Jose, endeavoring towards the famed viewpoints at the top. ☀️
Issue 6: 🦦🐋🌊The Monterey Bay Aquarium (#8)
Down by the bay, where the cauliflower grows, stands a town called Monterey facing the ocean. Just an hour’s drive outside of San Jose, Monterey is the epitome of a seaside town, complete with bustling shopping strips and densely-packed beach houses along the rocky coast. Specifically, a formerly bustling cannery morphed into one of the most well-known aquariums in the world—the Monterey Bay Aquarium.🌊
⭐Issue 5:🎄🦌❄️ The Great Dickens Christmas Fair (#7)
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Cobbled streets and Victorian storefront windows. A ballroom full of swishing ball gowns and neatly trimmed waistcoats. A full four acres of recreated Victorian England returns annually at the Cow Palace in Daly City—The Great Dickens Christmas Fair.🎄
Issue 4: 🌲🏞️🚶♀️Castle Rock (#6)
Wind buffeted the windows in angry quells. I’m riding at a modest 35 miles per hour on the freeway through the steadily thickening forests of Los Gatos, struggling to see the road in front of me due to the mist and fog and rain. Join me in this issue’s Daily Explorer to Castle Rock. 🏞️
Issue 3: ⚰️🎃👻Winchester Mystery House (#5)
Countless rooms. Secret passageways. Stairways that lead to ceilings, doors to nowhere. Nestled in the heart of former sprawling apricot orchards—now the bustling Santana Row—lies the spooky Winchester Mystery House.🎃
⭐Issue 2:🕌🏺🌴 Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum (#4)
Within the depths of the Rose Garden Neighborhood in central San Jose, ornate Egyptian-style pillars tower over the grand entrance of the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. Complete with a colorful mosaic fountain and an obelisk in the midst of a flourishing garden, the Rosicrucian Park is home to both a fascinating museum and a beautiful estate.🕌
Issue 1: 🏝️❄️⛱️Santa Cruz’s Sunset Beach (#3)
As the temperature slowly creeps into the 80’s, the universal pattern of abandoned jackets heralds the coming of summer. I, personally, love summer. To me, summer means lazy days and exciting adventures, complete with visits to the beach. Sunset Beach– admittedly a basic name— remains a popular attraction for beachgoers, especially as the weather starts warming up. ⛱️
2023-2024 Sophomore Year
⭐Issue 9: 🔭🌌🌙The Lick Observatory(#2)
As the first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory, the Lick Observatory has stood in the Diablo Range since 1888, looking over the persistently changing Silicon Valley. This issue, editor Faith Gonia will be joining me in the second ever journey of The Daily Explorer– this time, taking place in the dead of night. 🌌
Issue 8: 🖼️🪞🎨The San Jose Museum of Art (#1)
Welcome Explorers, to the very first installment of The Daily Explorer. In this soon-to-be series, I will traverse the unknown in search of never-seen-before places. As the very first adventure of this series, I will be traversing Downtown San Jose alone to explore the one and only San Jose Museum of Art.🖼️