Your time put in clearly shows and has already helped me, so I appreciate it.
I visited Japan in late May/June so before that I picked up just a little functional spoken "survival phrases" from JapanesePod 101 podcasts. Nothing really in depth, but enough to get around ok. It was beautiful and would like to go back one day not feeling as much like an ignorant tourist so since then I started Duo and its really all 3. It starts you off with Hirigana as a basis and slowly replaces them with Kata and Kanji where applicable. It starts with functional basics - intros, telling time, family, foods, greetings etc. Where it struggles are points of emphasis and particles I would say. Still a complete beginner, but slowly trying to improve :)
You know, I was actually in Japan around the same time as you... Basically may 15th-31st. Funny.
Sounds like they built a pretty cool program on duo... You'll improve no matter what if you get into a habit of doing at least a little bit every day, but no doubt you'll need other resources to complete your studies.