The 1924 OTIS elevator at Tohka Saikan's main branch, the only restaurant building William Merrell Vories designed, is described by the restaurant as the oldest surviving elevator in Japan, and it is still driven by hand by staff.
Why it's unique
The restaurant describes its elevator as the oldest surviving in Japan (日本最古). That is the operator's own claim, repeated independently by Gigazine, Kyotopi and Leaf; there is no third-party elevator register, so it is attributed, and confidence is lowered.
The ride is the experience: you never touch the controls. A staff member comes to collect you and drives the car by brass handle, levelling each floor by eye, in a building by Vories that is his only restaurant.
Before you go
You don't touch the controls: you call the car, a chime sounds on whatever floor it is resting on, and a staff member comes to collect you and drives it with a brass handle, levelling each floor by eye; the double doors open by hand. The clock-hand floor dial has uneven spacing because the storeys are different heights.
The restaurant refuses visitors who come only to look, so order; the sweet-and-sour pork is the popular dish. From 1 May to 15 October it runs a Kamogawa yuka deck with no seat charge, and in summer a rooftop beer garden looking across to the Daimonji fire.
Weekdays 11:30 to 15:00 and 17:00 to 21:30; weekends and holidays 11:30 to 21:30; irregular weekly closures (dates on the site). Courses from ¥6,600, à la carte from about ¥1,500. Building 1926, Tohka Saikan since late 1945. Tel 075-221-1147.
