Hey! Cool idea.
Unfortunately I've never been to Japan but I can timeline my Japanese experience.
Primary school- First experience with Japan was when I was given a research assignment to complete. As Karate kid was cool during that time and had introduced me to Karate I decided to do it on Karate. That was when the country first appeared on my radar.
High school- Did Japanese in my first year of high school. Was fun but my goal at the time was to become a fighter pilot so dropped it for physics (which was interesting however considering I decided the air force wasn't the place for me during my final year of high school it turned out to be a waste of time).
University- After I did quite a bit of travelling after high school (working in the US, living in London, travelling through Europe) I decided that it was time to go to university. My travelling had inspired me to learn another language and considering I wanted to go to Asia next, and I've always had a passing interest in Japan through movies and martial arts etc. since I was a kid I decided on Japanese.
And here I am now... still studying Japanese and hoping to go there on exchange or a working holiday visa next year.
Hope y'all enjoyed my story
