No. There is no real point to go there every year, especially my friends will come visit me with their family from time to time.

I spent years on watching anime and variety shows, reading comics and novels, listening to whatever that is on the (web)radio.
When I was in college I took basic Japanese course.
After that I travelled to Japan alone to meet the local friends I met online, and participate at Comiket and stuff.

There is no shortcut in learning the language. Once you get the basics and grammer go get wild. Make sure you can get in touch with the latest, or else you might get lost with all the new slang and words.

You're username is win.

I feel I need to give you a well-deserved thumbs up on your username

No I haven't watch the movie.
There are many spoiler sites out there after the pre-screening.