[samurai007]

Here's my suggestion: Get a visitor's visa (as was already said, much easier to get than a work visa, and it lets you stay up to 90 days). You said you have plenty of money, so you should be able to live on it while you're there. If you want to get involved with work and daily Japanese life, try volunteering... maybe visit and play music at an orphanage or hospital, or find some volunteer organization that strikes your interests. I think as long as you aren't being paid, the work visa won't matter. If, while you are doing this you happen to find a paying job, you can change to a work visa (you may have to leave the country and re-enter to do that, a day trip to Korea being a common way of doing it).