Ask HN: Hacker-friendly in Tokyo?

I've got about $4k saved up to spend a couple months in Tokyo, starting in November. While I'm there I'll be taking college entrance exams to go to undergrad. over there. I've got two questions:

1. I'm looking for a place to stay in Tokyo, preferably where I could cook my own food. Anybody here have any recommendations as to where I might look into renting a place? (Already checked Hackerspaces)

2. I don't know if going to college in Japan is a good idea. It's much, much cheaper, and if I can get into a good university, the research people will be good too, but something might come up. Anybody here been to college in Japan as an exchange student or in undergrad.?