playing soccer in japan

I'd like to know if any expats here have managed to join a small league soccer team in Japan. Are amatuer leagues common in Japan?

I won't be able to understand much Japanese at first, so would it be difficult to join a sports club?

and when you learn to speak Japanese does it then become easy to join a sports club?

For anyone else who wants information related to my question, I found this website:

http://www.footyjapan.com/tml/index.html

It has a list of football teams in Japan.

It seems that futsal is pretty popular in Tokyo so I'm also looking for a way to find a team or have a kick around. Although not with one of these organisers asking for 1200 yen per player per session..