In high school, I did French for 5 years. I was shit. I just couldn't get the language into my head, despite it being really easy. I even had a huge interest in French culture, especially the cinema. Before my GCSE's (the final compulsory exams in the UK), we did some mock tests, and from this it was established that my predicted grade was a D. It would have been an E if I hadn't got a good mark on my reading comprehension.
Literally weeks before my GCSE's started, we took a holiday to the South of France. My Dad forced me to talk to everyone. It was horrible. I was completely awkward and totally unprepared to speak the language. Not only that, people in the South don't talk like they do on the cassettes they play to you in listening comprehension. Still, I muddled through. I got some books in French (Northern Lights and The Hobbit, as well as a stack of Manga, easy to read stuff like Evangelion and Young Great Teacher Onizuka). I started talking to some French kids near the caravan park where I was staying. I stayed out a few times and got drunk off cheap wine. I was still pretty crap, and wasn't fluent or anything, but I was actually speaking French for the first time.
When I got back to the UK, I didn't do much revision, just a bit of reading. And I managed to get an A in my exam. My teacher (who previously had hated me) was delighted. It was awesome.
I've never been lucky enough to learn a language just by sitting down and studying it. My Dad always said the best way to get good in a language is to go out with someone who speaks it. So failing going to Japan, which would be uber expensive, if you really want to succeed at conversational Japanese, you need to find yourself a Japanese girlfriend, or at the very least Japanese speaking friends
pathetic, I know. 
