@skinnylatte I too fantasize about buying an old house in the remote, picturesque Japanese countryside and renovate it with modern amenities and high speed internet.
But that's a fantasy, while the reality would be almost exactly as you describe it. How would you communicate with and pay the tradespeople you'd need to hire, assuming young enough tradespeople even exist to do to work, then assuming that they'd even want to talk to you? How would you handle local building code, which has it's own centuries long history you'd need to unravel, all of which would be completely different to those from your hometown? And then how would you get citizenship and work in the country you just bought property in?