The ghibli museum is pretty awesome if you're a fan of director hiyao miyazaki (spirited away, my neighbor totoro). Located in mitaka, on the confines of inokashiro park, the exhibition pretty much is a reflection of the reason why his movie rocks hard - that the world is pretty wonderful in its most humanistic way without sucombing to special effects or emotional manipulation. The museum has some simple installations including a room with a giant furry catbus that only kids are allowed to play on, doors that lead nowhere except to a mirror, and a spiral staircase that leads from the first floor to the 5th story roof - atop, a 15 foot metal sculpture of a robot amidst a garden. Its simple but still awe inspiring especially after making the short but steep trek. My favorite was a model of several characters from spirited away in various poses behind a glass cylinder. The lights began to strobe, the model spin and you could see the various figures almost literally come to life as they began to jump rope, run or ride bikes. This museum probably isn't atop the list of many tourists to japan but its still a pretty rad place to visit.
Nadiff: which supposedly stands for new art diffusion. Err, ok but still, its a fun place just to chill. They've got art books, a small gallery and a cafe. The sales clerks are really nice and the merchandise isn't all that unreasonable - well the books aren't but the toys are a little pricey. But that is one of the cool things about japanese artist, like I might not be able to buy a painting but at least theres something else I could get besides and you never get the feeling that the merchandise is strictly for the sake of mass production. Unless your name is murakami.
Asics store: We had ran into this shoe store completely by accident although it was one of the stops I had wanted to visit. There shoes are a little more expensive than in la (about 10.00) so I got a couple of kicks that were limited to tokyo only. And the dude gave me couple of free pins too. Score!
Dispelling the myth: Its not like the japanese people just eat sushi and ramen every day. For the 4 days I was there, I only had the stereotypical japanese meal (of sashimi) on the last night when my friends took me out for a nice dinner. We ate korean bbq's, spaghetti and burgers alot too.