Have you thought about visiting an ukiyoe museum, a ramen museum, the Eiga-mura in Kyoto? There are so many excellent museums that you can visit for little to no charge. Others offer student discounts. Many of the museums also have small libraries where you can go to use materials related to that collection.

For example, the Showakan 昭和館 is a museum about life during the Showa period - but its displays center on life before, during and just after WWII on the home front. It has a small but good library collection that anyone may register to use. Most of the books are in closed stacks, so you need to ask at the desk for them, but the staff are very helpful and it is a good place to do independent research.

There are many museums and special libraries like this. Please look for ones in your field of research - like manga or kabuki - and use them while you are there.