Learning Japanese Through J-Music

I landed in Japan in 2015, with just an experience of cliche anime tropes, video games and zero experience in the language. I would hate to call myself a "weeb" because I didn't really fall into that subculture much - but was aware of it because of circles like 4chan.org, and other misc forums.  

Since I was a kid, I loved Japanese Anime and Video Games, and as an adult I still do. Anime openings and Endings were my first exposure to Japanese songs, and karaoke.

-—So with that backstory, learning Japanese through Music is pretty easy actually!

First Step: Learn Hiragana and Katakana

This is not needed, but— I highly suggest adding the Kana Character Map on your computer, so you can switch to it. The new Macbooks have a dedicated key on the keyboard making it a cinch - no need to configure a hotkey. I prefer OSX much more than Windows because it makes it more natural. Even if you have just a cell phone, it's also great to learn how to type.

Once you've done this, you can "write" japanese on your computer. I still use the "English" layout but when I type "ha" I get は。wa for　わ。あえいおう。AEIOU.

Before you jump ahead, and do vocabulary drills, writing kanji, or repeating what you read on anime - you should get familar with the Kana charts. Just recgonize the characthers and do flash cards and write them in the proper stroke order.

From reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/b0jlyt/i_made_an_allinone_hiraganakatakanabasic_kanji/

This is an excellent chart, it combines also with some of the most popular kanji as well that'd you see for numbers, months, days and common names. It may be a bit hard to swallow at first so let's break it up some more!

Step 2 - Repetition, writing and proper penmanship.

There's nothing easy to this unforunately, you need to write down the characthers, over and over, and over again. I highly suggest using proper paper and pens to simplify the process.

The above is a great starter kit, while you can use any piece of paper or pens - I highly suggest at minimum getting great .38mm pens, and .50mm, they make writing the fine lines a breeze and you'd wonder wow, how did I write with so inferior pens all this time?

Step 3 - Pick songs and write them over and over from Kanji - Kana - Romaji and Furigana!

I wll also say, this is not focusing on translating. Do not worry about understanding the lyrics, or such, this whole exercise is to find something to copy over and over and add a twist vs just copying the kana charts over and over.

The fun doesn't end, new words - Romaji and Furigana!

What's Romaji? - It's japanese words with "latin" alphabet.
Furigana? This means Hiragana/Katakana above Kanji, typical in anime/manga/hard words.

Example!
Hontou・Romaji
本当・Kanji
ほんとう・Hiragana
ホントウ・Katakana

Animelyrics.com is a great resource, I'm amazed to say that I've been using it since 2003, and it doesn't seem like so! It hasn't changed a bit, and that's nice - a bit of the old web still around - but for a resource to learn it's fantastic.

Randomly let's pick a Gundam Wing song, Rhythem Emotion -

https://www.animelyrics.com/anime/gundamw/gwremton.htm
Is the link.
Kanji is here: https://www.animelyrics.com/anime/gundamw/gwremton.jis

Romaji
mō(u)  kizutsuite mo ī(i)  hitomi (w)o sorasazu ni                                                                                                                                                        
atsuku  hageshiku  ikite itai                                                                                                                                                        

Kanji

もう 　 傷ついて も いい 　 瞳 を そらさず に                                                                                            
熱く 　 激しく 　 生きて いたい

Hiragana
もう 　 きずついて も いい 　 ひとみ を そらさず に                                              あつく 　 はげしく 　 いきて いたい