I chose to use the words: 愛してる ("ai-shi-te-ru") which means "I love you" in Japanese. At first I was going to use 好きです ("su-ki-de-su"), which means "I like you," but I really wanted to follow the love theme.

At first I layed it out left to right as Robert Indiana did, but Japanese is read from right to left and vertically, so I rearranged it accordingly for accuracy.

Next I generally figured out the colors and the thickness of the words and rearranged/resized the composition. I nearly forgot to slant one of the characters, as LOVE has O slanted. This is a crucial distinctive factor, but I had some trouble incorporating it into my 4 characters, which looked a bit strange. I couldn't really slant 愛, し, or て without making it look illegible or like a different character, so I think slanting る was a good choice.