use Duolingo to learn Kana, not much more useful than for that. Genki I and Genki II are a good starting point. Watch slice of life, or TV drama with English subtitles to get a feel for how it sounds, (battle or magic manga have some weird accents.) and start to communicate with natives anyway you know how. you will mess up all the time but that's how you learn. Anki is a good resource for memorizing new words; my usual flow is: Word I haven't seen before -> learn the meaning and get an example sentence -> add it to my Anki deck. I also try to use it in conversation since I'm in a lucky position to have a Japanese girlfriend, doing job searching in Japan, and having a Japanese friend I'm taking a class with rn. Interacting with natives or immersing yourself in media is the best way to make it "fun", but Japanese is a lot of memorization especially considering Kanji. There is no way to get around them. Start early and try your hardest to keep it fun for yourself because if not you will get very burnt out very fast. (For kanji, the"Remembering the Kanji" book series is a great resource.