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Travel notesPlaces we stopped along the wayTohkasaikan (Main Restaurant)

Places we stopped along the way

Kyoto City, Kyoto

Tohkasaikan (Main Restaurant)

From: An ordinary morning in a hundred-year-old Kyoto townhouse

The Spanish Baroque building on Shijo Street at night, a taxi passing
The Spanish Baroque building on Shijo Street at night, a taxi passing

A Beijing-cuisine restaurant at the west end of Shijo Bridge. The Spanish Baroque building was designed in 1926 by William Merrell Vories for the Western restaurant Yaomasa, and is the only restaurant Vories ever designed. It became Tohkasaikan at the end of 1945. Its Otis elevator, made in the United States and imported in 1924, is still in service and is described as the oldest surviving elevator in Japan; the inner door is a folding lattice gate and an operator drives it by hand. This time I had bottled beer, pan-fried dumplings and fried rice.

Shijo-Ohashi Nishizume, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto

Sources: tohkasaikan.com tohkasaikan.com tohkasaikan.com tohkasaikan.com

This moment in the journey

Beijing cuisine in a mansion on the Kamo River

A Spanish Baroque building rises beside the Kamo River. Tohkasaikan's home was built in 1926 to a design by William Merrell Vories; it began as the Western restaurant Yaomasa, and at the end of 1945 it became a Beijing-cuisine restaurant. I had admired the building from outside, and tonight I finally walked in.

At a table with a white cloth, I poured bottled beer into a glass and ate pan-fried dumplings and fried rice with shrimp: authentic Beijing cooking inside a historic building. Below the window lay Shijo Bridge, the Kamo River and the lights of Kyoto.

I took the elevator down. Made by Otis in the United States in 1924, it is said to be the oldest elevator still in service in Japan. The inner door is a folding lattice gate, closed by hand, and an operator drives it. I walked home through the night feeling as if I had been to some faraway country.

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The side of the building from the river, with the restaurant sign
The side of the building from the river, with the restaurant sign
Pouring bottled beer into a glass at a white-clothed table
Pouring bottled beer into a glass at a white-clothed table
Pan-fried dumplings on a white plate, fried rice behind
Pan-fried dumplings on a white plate, fried rice behind
Scooping shrimp fried rice with a china spoon
Scooping shrimp fried rice with a china spoon
Shijo Bridge and the Kamo River at night, seen from the window
Shijo Bridge and the Kamo River at night, seen from the window
The folding lattice inner door of the elevator
The folding lattice inner door of the elevator
A close look at the brass fittings of the folding door
A close look at the brass fittings of the folding door
Walking home along a stone-paved street under the streetlamps
Walking home along a stone-paved street under the streetlamps

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