Cool posteggiesm! What kind of Japanese literature are you interested in? I am interested in Japanese and Taiwanese cultural studies, colonial studies, postcolonial theory, etc.
I am not planning to visit because I've been to Cornell before. I can meet people from the program at the AAS conference in SD in a few weeks. But you should definitely visit if you haven't.
Stanford invited finalists to campus last week and I think they have made (at least some of the) final decisions. I think it's very unlikely that you will get in unless you were at least a finalist. Hope this helps.