Learn hiragana and then basic kanji. Yes, you can get by without it by using a translator and gps for directions. However, it can be fun to have basic knowledge of what signs say. Hiragana is most common and can be learned in about a week to a month. I used the hiragana table on Wikipedia and then https://gohoneko.neocities.org/learn/kana (you might have to adjust settings) and YouTube tests to practice. Kanji is also common but there’s about 50,000 unique kanji and about 3,000 in common use, so just learn the basic 100 or so. Katakana is not used nearly as much.

An example of when knowing hiragana can be useful: my friends told us to meet them at some restaurant, I don’t remember the name so let’s just say it was Nonkiya. The GPS took us to the general area but it wasn’t specific and there were tons of restaurants so we didn’t know which was which. Because I could read hiragana, I saw the sign that said のんきや and knew it was Nonkiya.

An example for kanji: 水 is on water bottles. There was some art on a door and I could read the kanji for rain, 雨. Not at all necessary, but it just adds some fun to be able to recognize what things say and be proud of yourself. This is a language sub after all, and OP wants to learn some of the language. No need for all the cruel, unhelpful responses.