Why Japanese?

I have always wanted to learn Japanese ever since my interest in anime began when I was 13 years old. When I started Columbia University, I took a year of Mandarin Chinese hoping it would make learning Japanese easier since Kanji are essentially Chinese characters. Taking Mandarin and East Asian courses during my time in Columbia deepened my understanding and curiosity in variety East Asian cultures. Two years later, I took a year and a half break from Columbia. During this time, I traveled to Tokyo and Mt. Fuji. I fell in love with Japanese culture all over again and realized I wanted to live in Japan for at least a year and immerse myself in the culture. In order to do this, I need to learn Japanese and find a job in Japan, ideally as a teaching assistant for English language. So far learning Japanese has been enjoyable. Throughout the past four weeks, the most challenging aspect of learning Japanese is speaking and getting all of the intonations and pronunciations correct. Despite this, I feel that learning Kanji will be even more difficult and am anxious for when we begin to learn it. Overall, Japanese has been a lot of fun and I can't wait to learn more!