Hello everyone! I am going on a solo trip to Japan next December and would like to hear any
recommendations on learning some basic Japanese to hold a decent conversation while I am
there. I will be there for about 3 weeks.

I have read about the different methods and reviews on them but would much rather hear how
some of you learned. Keep in mind, I have about 2 years till the trip, so I have the time to study.
Also, any tips or suggestions on what I should visit, besides the obvious shops.

I have searched through the Japan trips posted on here, so any other suggestions are greatly
appreciated. Thanks again in advanced.

Parasite Museum in Meguro, its on the Yamanote line and a little walk but a nice hour of bugs that live in people watching. And you can buy a key ring with a tapeworm in it!!!!!!!

But really, there is so much to do it depends on what you like. Akihabara is still fun to look at all the shops but its been cleaned up so much in the last few years, most of the toy shops are gone but the sheer amount of other stuff makes it worth going to check out. There are so many stops where you could spend half a day just looking around, Ueno, Koenji, Meguro, Shibuya, Harajuku, its endless. Also many of the small stops have very old shopping streets and you can get some great food while walking around and find shops (not just toys) that you will never hear about but may like anyway. But there is so much more than shopping too! Id recommend Osaka for sure if you get a train pass and you should, you can go anywhere just about with it. Osaka is the best, and its close to Kyoto which is a tourist must for obvious reasons, its beautiful.

As for learning Japanese, I have no idea as my ability to study is non existent at best. i have lived here long enough that its just kinda got shoved into my head.

Haha the learning it makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the info. How about the bars out there?