Most of my friends (and probably most people from my generation) got into Japan/Japanese/Japanese culture because of animé. This was not at all the case for me.
First, I should mention I'm a passionate person, and I follow my passions, generally without question. I'll get really into something like, say, crochet or bluegrass for a couple weeks, a few months, and then it gradually fades away. With no prior connection to Japan and without really knowing anyone on the same journey as me, I fully expected Japan to fade away, too.
Basically, I read Memoirs of a Geisha in high school, loved it. I reread it, this time in audio book form, in 2012 and, a couple weeks after finishing the book, I had this inexplicable and insatiable urge to learn about Japan. I immediately went to my local library and grabbed their meager offerings. The history and culture were fascinating. And I kept seeing these strange names and characters. I have always, always loved language and how it works, so starting to learn the language was just a natural progression for me. I didn't make the connection for at least a month that it'd all been caused by a fictional book.
Now it's a year later, and I'm still going strong. I'm just as surprised as anyone! Japan has quickly become my other main passion from acting. Hopefully I can use them both!
Why I kept going...
Now, that's why I started learning Japanese. But why did I continue? So many people get turned off by learning the kana or by not having a strong enough connection to the culture. As far as the kana go, I am very stubborn and competitive at times, so I wanted to "win" in this situation. I'd say to myself, "Pssh, this is not that hard." Because, honestly, if you keep you eyes and ears open, there are strange things about every language. Languages are living, breathing things, not math, so they're not always logical or easily explained (I'm sure spelling and punctuation in English is all really hard for the Japanese). This is what I remind myself of when I'm struggling with Japanese counters. So, as far as why I've kept learning the language, some of it is due to my stubbornness/competitiveness, some is due to the fact that I love learning languages in general, and the rest is due to how much I love the country and culture. This last reason is dangerously close to spinning off into its own blog topic, so I'll can it here. For now.
