You can get a cultural visa and live with relatives. Getting a cultural visa is not hard but you will need to be a full time student and pay for your lessons. Japanese language schools offer visa as do martial art dojos and other cultural schools. After a while (like 6 months??) you can get permission to work part time. Hello Work (
http://www.hellowork.go.jp/) might be able to find you a job but without a degree do not expect it to be a good job. I recommend spending month or 2 in Japan in the summer to see if you like it. Then come home and go back to school. After that you can make a more educated decision on if Japan is right for you or not.