In the countryside Japan, as for public transportation , it really depends on which countryside you live, visit, or travel to.

The countryside where its population is less than 10,000 such as Anamizu town where I live in, public transportation is not that great.

You could live with bus schedule. However, you cannot move or go places freely at all. Schedule is like, one bus every a few hours. You also could take a train but you could only explore areas that are close to one train station, even though there are so much more to explore. There are many small beautiful places in the countryside. The countryside is deep!

Ways to travel in Japan is by renting a campervan or campingcar or pick one place to stay and rent a car for a while and make friends!

If you rent a campervan, there are many RV type of shared parking spaces such as Carstay, Roadside Station known as “Michi no Eki,” or RV parks all over in Japan. In addition, everywhere you travel to in Japan, it’s so clean and neatly organized!

In addition to RV locations, your campervan could be just a ride or a moving base house that you don’t have to look for a hotel every night. Wherever you go to, you have a place to sleep. In the countryside, if it is not a tourist location, not only public transportation but there are not much hotels as well.

However, in those locations or the countryside where there are not much public transportation and hotels, that is where you get to discover more than normal tourists.

If you could remotely work, it would be a good idea to pick or live in one base location to stay for a while, get to know its base areas, work sometimes, and travel around its base sometimes. With most of countries’ tourist visa, you could stay in Japan for 3 months.

It would be good to stay at a shared house like below as well, if you are interested! 😉
https://inaka-backpacker.com/blog/en/2019/12/03/carstay-and-inaka-backpacker-vanlife-station/

Well, hopefully, around the world, we soon will restore our normal lives. Until then, please stay safe! 🙂