First of all, I'll admit, I didn't just skimmed through your message, sorry but I don't really have time.
Now, in an attempt to help you:
From what I know, before these higher level schools accept you, they'll need you to pass JLPT Lv. 2 but just to be safe, I'd say you should get a JLPT Lv. 1 since after you're done with these schools, you might want to seek employment in Japan.
I heard that the language schools in Japan will help you seek for universities so you can worry about that later. Right now, your primary concern should be looking for a language school.
Here are some info to get your started:
一般財団法人 日本語教育振興協会 - This is a site with a list of recognized language schools. Simply click on the 'English' link and then take it from there. It's basically a language school search engine! Heck, you can even search via cities.
http://www.abk.or.jp/jls/abk.html - Here's one school without too much requirements. Some schools require you to have a guarantor, this one doesn't.
独立行政法人日本学生支援機構 - Here's another one.
The requirements are there but to save you the trouble, basically, you need 12 years of prior education before entering a language school, the tuition fee is around 500-800,000 Yen a year.
I hope that helps, I'm going to check your topic from time to time just to see if you need additional information aside from the ones I already gave you.
Good luck, dude.