Looking forward to useful resources! Thank you for your efforts.

@J. Alexander Bennett i do not, but it is both pretty straight forward and kinda hit or miss. The meta horizon worlds range a good deal from useful meeting areas to complete waste of time depending on who is there to chat with. But the Visit Japan area has been pretty mature and well run.

@J. Alexander Bennett indeed, and what makes it worthy is the great folks who are friendly and welcoming.

Merry Christmas everyone

Konnichiwa, I am Florida resident and have been a huge martial arts fan all my life (right now studying Matstubayashi Ryu Okinawan karate) I also enjoy anime and manga (not a nerd at all) I spent 28 days in Japan in May 2025 just hiking and doing tourist things and it was the most amazing trip of my life. I had spent 6 months prior to the trip doing some language study and picked up a good deal of basics. On my second day I was walking around Ginza and bought a onigiri at a little shop. I knew I was not supposed to eat and walk and I saw no tables so I asked Onigiri wa tabetai desu doko desu ka? Which is about the limit of what I could put together, and the answer I got contained not a single word that I recognized. I realized then that being even a little conversational was not something I was going to accomplish in a month. I got by all right and got more used to using google translate. Since I have gotten back I have dabbled in learning more just to keep my brain busy. I watch anime with subtitles and sometimes know what people are saying... sometimes. Learning at 56 years old is not as easy it used to be, but you have to keep your mind busy.

@J. Alexander Bennett Most anything Gundam, Fireforce, Demon Slayer, Spy Family, Dandadan, Kaiju no 8, MHA. Most of the big hitters. I love the artwork in manga. I went to the International Manga Museum in Kyoto, really amazing stuff. I also play the Gundam trading card game with my son. I think that learning Japanese spoken language is a great challenge, but learning to read it would be a next level challenge. Mainly because of kanji. I can handle some hiragana, but then it hits one of those squiggly blocks of lines that looks a whole like a bunch of other blocks from a collection of thousands of them..... Oiy.