Traveling to sendai in less than a week. Any advice, kudasai? :)

Hey, everyone,
I'd like to start off this message by saying any general suggestions about what to take, where to go, what to see, what to do etc in Japan are more than welcome. Especially what to pack since I'm packing this week . So please keep in mind that any help or suggestions you can offer me in any of these areas would be greatly appreciated. Anyways...
So I'm traveling to Sendai on the 21'st of this month (in about 4 days). I am planning on reserving a hostel there. I have been given the choice between
hihostels.com/dba/hostel032262.en.htm
and
hihostels.com/dba/hostel032263.en.htm
...apparently they both have openings as of yesterday (hopefully still ).

It seems that the second listed one (Sendai-Chitose) seems nicer and is worth the small increase in price (it's only a couple hundred yen more a night). Does anyone strongly agree or disagree with that? I will have to stay at one of these places for at least a day....possibly all week. I don't know much Japanese and am having trouble researching a good place to stay - any advice on which of those two hostels to pick....or if I should be considering any other types of housing that I might have bypassed.....would be very helpful to me
The situation is I am going to school in Sendai, but my on campus housing won't be ready until oct 1st, and I wanted to get to Japan before then. So I'm going to find a place to stay until my campus housing kicks in on oct 1st. I'd like to travel around Japan, maybe find a place to stay in Tokyo for the first week, but I am going to have to stay in Sendai for at least one night since I get in late from my flight.
Will it be possible to just show up in Tokyo and get housing? Additionally, is it ridiculous to book only one day and then decide later whether or not I want to stay the whole week in Sendai? I'd like to do that but then I'm afraid they will not have room for me and I'll be left without any good place to stay. How fast do hostels in Sendai fill up....are they always busy?
Again, any general suggestions about the area of Sendai or Japan or about what things to take or do when I'm there are more then welcome. I'm very excited to experience some amazing Japanese culture, as I'm sure many other people on this forum are.
I look forward to any help or responses I may get, thanks for reading!
Osewa samadesu,
--Tony

Pick up a lonely planet - it's your best friend if you're backpacking or just traveling around.

Hey Percipient
I don`t know allot about the hostels here, but i know that there is no problems gettinga hotell room here without bocking or anything. there are tons of hotels here and they only fill up during the tanabata festival witch is 1 week in august.
The hostels you had linked the second one is in a great location close to the entertainment center of town and not to far from the rest eather, wile the first one is quite a walk form town and only public transportation into town is with bus witch could be kind of hard without some kanji knowledge.
In the sendai area there isn`t allot to do exept get drunk, watch movies and a few turist spots, but since your new here its probaly still fun for you to come here, i remember when i came here i thought it was awsom just to walk around and check out all the stores.
as for going to tokyo thats up to you I didn`t do it and im happy i didn`t, i settled down instead and whent on my next vacation instead...
as for clothing now it`s getting colder but when your comming its gonna be around 30ish. i dont know how long you will be staying but summers are hot and winters are cold, so if your staying for more than a year bring allitle of both, if your a big person pack down as much cloaths you can.
if theres anything else you whant to know about sendai just ask and ill c if i can anser, but just so you know i only check in here ones a day