Using Japanese to learn other things?

I got hold of a copy of アシモフ雑学コレクション　almost by accident in japan, and recently started adding random trivia from it into anki, and have found it a good way to make anki more interesting- not only am i learning new Japanese, I am also learning odd facts about the world from it.

I wondered if anyone else had had any luck with this sort of thing, where Japanese becomes the medium for other learning, rather than the subject of study itself?

I really wanted to learn Japanese as I want to visit Japan someday. Im into anime, asian culture, travel, collecting silver art rounds, jpop and kpop!

Please also read this; 日本語 – Tweeting in Japanese