thanks for the info guys. i went to bingo sport and they were pretty adamant about no pictures, so i only have a few ;-) ...will post when i get back.
for the museum, i hope to get to it...but its two hours by train out of tokyo. it is closed tue and wed so i will have my japanese friend call them today during their opening hours to make sure i can visit tomorrow. they dont seem to have an answering machine--weird. i wont have my japanese guide with me tomorrow so it might be tough and i dont want to waste half a day riding around in trains and end up not being able to make it because of some trivial language problem. bingo was tough enough to find and that is right in the heart of tokyo. we will see, but i do hope to make it.
if any of you plan to visit japan and go outside tokyo, be sure to buy a rail travel card in your country. it will pay for itself many times over.