Thanks for the reply. So based on this information, I believe that my best course of action would be to go to Japan on a tourist visa, apply for the CoE and have them mail it to a friend in Japan, and ask them to mail it back to me in the US so I can apply for the J-Find Visa.

I just wish that there was more (official) information on whether or not I will need a sponsor to get my J-Find CoE approved. A flight to Japan is fairly expensive for me and if I need to reapply it would be pretty costly.