The Jinya gave you an idea of what the hall looked like to the officials who had dealings with the government. Including the view of the garden from many of the rooms. Not all of the information was in English and unfortunately I can't read Japanese.

This place is vast, incredibly well preserved, and has sufficient English signage. If you have seen enough samurai movies it is very easy to picture officials receiving petitioners, courtiers signing documents, and servants preparing tea. If you don't have much prior knowledge of Japanese history/culture (or even if you do) it's probably a good idea to ask for an English-speaking... More

this is definitely more of a locals market, we didn't visit the temple as we planned to hit more temples on the walking tour, but it was nice to see local produce. www.eatdrinktravelrepeat.com/takayama2

Tip#1: would be more interesting if u engaged an English-speaking guide. Otherwise a lot of exhibits wouldn't be very meaningful, since they were rather bare and simply tagged with some brief info. Note that there's also a morning market outside (Jin-Mae market) which is very limited esp in winter (only 4 stalls were opened when I was there).

This place gives you an opportunity to look into the past of Takayama. Not in the scale of individual shop or business like the preservation town center but you'll learn how they run the city back then. It's in the center and the fee is not expensive. Definitely worth it.

Takayama Jinya was originally the private residence of the Kanamori family before becoming the government office set up by the Tokugawa shogunate to control the Hida region. It is the last surviving building of its kind and contains numerous rooms once used as offices, storerooms, kitchens, and living quarters with labeled artifacts, documents, maps, etc. The building is architecturally interesting... More

Doesn't look like a lot is going on from the outside, but there is a free English tour that is very good. The guide was very interesting, and was happy to answer everyone's questions. Great exhibit after the end of the guided section, and you can go back and take your time to take photos if you wish.

mostly in Japanese so might not understand most of the exhibitions, the building shows how the goverment work in the past, segregations of the ministers and governers offices etc

Takayama Jinya, the last of the government buildings of its kind in Japan, is very interesting to visit. It contains residential areas, gardens, offices for clerks receiving taxes, a courtroom (with torture instruments and photos!), and a huge storehouse, for the rice received in payment of the taxes, which has interesting items arranged as in a museum (with enough English... More