parpol
Jokes aside, Koe no Katachi, and Kimi ni Todoke are probably my favorites.
As long as you can get a work visa with that job, you're good to go. At the very least you probably can get a similar remote job by a japanese company and get the visa.
There will be a gift tax on the house, and land tax, but where you're trying to go, the land tax will be very low, and the free house will be valued at 0 and therefore have 0 property tax. Houses don't appreciate in value in Japan, so you'll never have to pay property tax on that house even if you fix it up, and as long as you don't tear it down, the land tax will also stay low.
If you're fine with there also being few things to actually do, you can essentially throw a dart on the map and pick the closes village to where it lands, and chances are it'll have a population of less than 1000 people, and if you're OK being stuck there for 10 years you can join the house givaway program to get some old house. You'll have to find a job and maybe do so maintenance on the house, but other than that, you'll get a free house in the middle of nowhere.
Boku no pico
Helvete!*
*It means hello in Swedish.
Even cities near Tokyo are at most a few hours train-rides away from Paradise. In Chiba you have onjuku (A large beach with desert dunes), in kanagawa you have Enoshima. (Beach, and an island with caves and shrines). In gunma you have Kusatsu. (winter hotspring wonderland on top of a mountain chain)
The easiest way is probably if you're a software engineer or have some kind of bachelor's /master's / doctorate's degree. In that case you can head over right now and start looking for a job. You can stay for 3 months without a visa. Meanwhile you search for jobs related to your field. There are English speaking jobs here in software engineering.
Or You could always spend those 3 months dating women and look for a spouse.
These two are the cheapest options, but if you have a bachelor's or master's degree, you can also upgrade it to doctor's degree at a japanese university. If your grades were decent (they don't have to be excellent), you can apply for scholarships. You also have student loans. university is much cheaper than the ones in the US and should be fairly easy to pay off.
The most expensive way is probably language school, but those are also cheaper than US universities.
By southern do you mean Kyushu and shikoku? I haven't been to Shikoku but it does look like a Paradise from when Degawa and other celebrities went there on TV.
Kyushu is also pretty tropical, but more populated, and has more tourist attractions, thus more tourists.
Both are beautiful. I haven't been all over, but Shikoku looks more tropical than Kyushu.
Unfortunately they also are where most of the summer typhoons wreck havoc, landslides destroy the most property and bury the most people. Most of japan besides Kanto, Hokkaido and touhoku are pretty tropical so for example if you move to areas around Kanazawa you can get most of the Paradise with less natural disasters. If it is just for a visit, however, Kyushu is amazing. Kumamoto, Beppu, Fukuoka are beautiful in their own unique ways.
I thought city folk didn't like that feeling of grass tickling your feet.
You could always leave it all behind a come to Japan.
Hello mixed in vinegar.