Beginning to learn Japanese!

　　はじめまして Jack Wolfgramm　づす. I am taking Japanese 101 at Princeton University. I chose to learn Japanese because I wanted to learn a new alphabet, am interested in the culture, and think the Japanese language sounds nice. Basically, I have no good reason for taking a hard language.  I am very interested in learning how the Japanese sounds and grammar are different from English. I am very worried by the fact that Japanese has three alphabets and over one thousand characters. I wanted to learn a new alphabet but that is too much! Also, when I try to write hiragana my handwriting is very bad. Despite these things I am still very optimistic about the class and think that I will have a fun time!

When I looked up "Princeton University Japanese" this is the image that came up. What kind of tree is this?