I bought a investment property in a foreign country many years ago.

For primary home lending, several banks have Foreign National programs that accept a foreign credit report.

You would only need a foreign entity registration for the state of Florida.

On arrival we found out that the parking was metered and could only be paid by coin and not with credit card or phone, so we were unprepared and did not have the foreign coin ready.

Hi There, Many of my clients are foreigners (not Canadians but Europeans) who buy long-term rental in the states, I've been doing it for more than 20 years and specialized lenders for this scenario change every few years.Would you be comfortable sharing the terms you've been getting from those two companies?

There's no need to deal with 'foreign' LLC hoops elsewhere.

Yes, foreigners can buy property in Japan.The Japanese Culture & EconomyWormann's book also talks about the Japan's culture and economy as it relates to real estate.

@Jay Hinrichs & @Engelo Rumora we've got a tax attorney that gets Power Of Attorney to setup and manage the domestic bank account for a LOT of foreign clients.

@Nate P.Your profile hints that you are living abroad.If you are a US citizen - you want to make sure that the CPA you work with understands the foreign earned income exclusion(FEIE).If you purchase a property and are expecting valuable feedback on how that property will impact your tax return, you will need to provide a rough profit and loss projection(rental income and expenses) along with purchase price to have a conversation with your accountant so that they can provide you good feedback. 

The first step would be creating a Foreign US LLC for yourself to operate under.