It is open about half the year, during the tourist season, from mid-March to mid-July and again mid-September to mid-December. The first floor is open on a walk-up basis, while the second floor requires advance registration for guided tours (in Japanese) given a few times per day. The first floor of the museum features a large back garden, a small inner garden, three tea houses, a large banquet hall facing the back garden (the pine room "matsu-no-ma") that could fit up to 100 people (main location where parties were held), a smaller banquet hall (the wicker room "ajiro-no-ma") facing the inner garden, and a vast kitchen, together with exhibits. The back garden contains a racked gravel bed (rock garden) and a trellised (pergola) pine tree (second generation, about 100 years old). There are many details, such as a sword rack and sword chest where katanas were checked to prevent violence – guests placed their sword on the rack, and it was then moved to the chest. There are paintings, most significantly "Plum Blossoms" by Buson, with other colorful paintings in the pine room, and records of the menus, which were paid for on a "bill afterwards" basis. In addition to housing many fine paintings, it was a salon for noted haiku poets, and many poems are preserved in the archives.