I’ve noticed recently that I’m looking forward a lot more to learning grammar rather than any vocabulary or kanji. I’ve also found that it’s a lot more rewarding to finally memorize a grammar point than that of a word or a kanji character. It’s especially weird since I used to absolutely dread grammar. Does anybody else feel this way?
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You’re not alone 
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I used to despise grammar 
it’s such a hassle to learn when you can/can’t use it, what forms go where, having it be so close to another similar looking point but be different
But because of all that I feel like the return is also greater🎉 with vocab you learn what to say, but learning how to say it with grammar just hits different. It also feels more rewarding for me because I’ll see the same grammar points used repeatedly throughout a book or from a podcaster over any range of topic, much more often than an individual vocab like tofu. Useful if you like tofu or hate it sure, but won’t see as much of it in book about wizards.
At first I loved vocab more, which makes sense because everything was new. Can’t see the grammar point if I don’t know any of the words used in the sentence. Learning vocab was a quick and easy fix, but after a good base of vocab I needed grammar to chuck them together. Still hated having to sit through grammar until I finally utilized bunpro and let it just do it’s thing. Thanks again champs 
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I agree with the above sentiment. Learning grammar really opens up the language.
Each new word you learn especially after the first 1-2000 has very low marginal utility. Maybe you know the word for this new food, or context or situation. But because grammar is more universal across contexts every new grammar point has a much higher utility.
That is until you get into synonym hell around late N3 early N2 and I think you hit the point of diminishing returns in that same way.
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This. I can say 泳ぐ by learning vocabulary, but how would I say, “I swam”, “I didn’t swim”, “I want to swim”, etc, etc, etc without learning grammar?
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100% agree with that last paragraph!!
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I find I get very similar levels of satisfaction from learning both kanji and grammar - I feel like both really ‘unlock’ the language for me. It’s so frustrating to try and read a block of text full of unknown kanji, in the same way it’s frustrating to see a bunch of hiragana that’s obviously grammar that I don’t know yet.
That is to say though, I know exactly what you mean about grammar - learning a new grammar point and immediately encountering it is chefs kiss
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Just to provide a counterbalancing view, I find learning kanji such as 金, 酬 and 賞 to be incredibly rewarding 
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Kinda the opposite for me. I found kanji and vocabulary much more fun to learn, which is why I went through most of Wanikani without knowing much grammar. Now when I’m in Japan, I have no issue reading an ingredients list or a traffic sign, but I can’t really communicate or understand longer sentences very well. Which is exactly why I’ve now started Bunpro. 
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Personally I feel learning kanji and vocab is easier and feels better in the beginning, but at some point grammar really feels super rewarding because you are now able to understand sentences rather than words. Personally I have arrived at a point in N2 where Vocab starts to be more rewarding again, as the grammar structures I’d learn are fairly niche, compared to lots of the words I still have to learn. (I have only finished the N5 deck here and I am level 27 on Wanikani, so lagging behind a lot compared to my grammar studies)
I think it all boils down to usefulness in the end.
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It really depends on what level you are on in your Japanese journey that you will find more rewarding. Very early on, I found that grammar was quite rewarding as it expanded the possibilities of what you could do with the language. But later on in my journey I found kanji to be more rewarding, then vocab, then back to grammar.
You will always find patches that are rough and the stuff you haven’t learned yet will be the ones that excite you the most as it continues to unlock the hidden mysteries of the Nihongo riddle.
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Without grammar it’s just word soup
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And I am fork
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I agree! Sure, it’s great when you know a word (and how to read a particular kanji), but knowing how to actually say something or understand an entire sentence rather than just bits and pieces is awesome!
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