advice re: getting translation work?

It's always been a dream of mine, since I was a wee thing, to become a translator. I'm getting to the stage where I would certainly not call myself fluent, but armed with my trusty 漢字そのまま楽引辞典 I can indeed read grown-up books (albeit very slowly) and make my friends jealous by playing new-release games before they're translated. (Whee!)

So, since it'd be ideal to be able to eke out a living doing something I love, I've been looking into it more and thought people here might be able to give me helpful advice.

First of all, I live in New Zealand, so there's relatively few advertised opportunities here for bilingual jobs (whether translation-related or otherwise). I can't really think of how to go about finding those companies that would find my skills useful, even when I have improved them to a level I'm satisfied with. Any tips?

Secondly, I'm going over to Okinawa later this year and working as a hotel receptionist on a 3-month contract, utilizing a working holiday visa, so once I'm using the language in a work environment regularly,
I'm hoping it'll improve enough that after that 3 months is up, I can
look for translation work.

Would there be many opportunities for ranslators/proofreaders who're
only JLPT 2, and have Japanese work experience but not translation? If
so, would there be much outside of Tokyo, or would I be better off heading there for employment opportunities?

Also, how does one get experience as a translator anyway? Or a proofreader, for that matter? I've been searching around on the
Internet for companies looking for freelance translators, but I haven't really found much. I'd be happy to do unpaid work if it means I can gain experience at the end of the day.

There was a discussion about this same topic earlier this week with good advice/ links given.

Scroll down a bit in this section and you should find it. Also start studying towards JLPT 1 as most translation jobs really do require that level of Japanese reading ability.