I’m excited for your language journey. I was finally able to go to Japan last year after a decade of study. I found that if you’re in Tokyo you don’t need that much Japanese to navigate. For example, subway station signs are in English as well. I do think being conversational in Japanese helps in bonding with people while there. I bring this up because I held myself back from going until I felt “good enough” at the language, but now I think I should have gone sooner because I don’t think there will ever be a point where I feel good enough. There will always be more to learn.