Question about San Jose
 

When people talk about the "San Francisco & Bay Area", would that normally include San Jose?

I think that it would include it...

Any city in one of the nine Bay Area counties would be considered part of the SF Bay Area cities, and that includes San Jose, which borders the bay itself on it's northern boundary (wherein lies the Alviso sewage plant. Not exactly fisherman's wharf.)

BL
SJ native

actually, in casual conversation with people, when they refer to "the Bay Area" the furthest south they're usually including is Fremont

so no, i would say SJ isn't usually included (although it technically IS part of the Bay Area)