[alanX]

Now we're getting somewhere. Let me break down the writing system for you.

There are FOUR alphabets used in Japan.

Romaji (English/Roman characters, just like this entire thread, you don't even need to learn then, you already know them. Easy, huh? XD)

Hiragana (Looks like this ひらがな　これひらがなだよ　ばかですね) These are used for basic crap, it's really hard to explain. But this is the "main" alphabet.

Katakana （Kataka looks like this アラン　フォーラム　ネックレス フォン ラブホ =]]) It's somewhat more simple than Hiragana. It is used to write foreign words, that don't necissarily have a word in Japanese. (Not necissarily, but for simplicity purposes, I'm going to leave it at that.) Words like names, computer, necklace, hotel, ect. Are all written in Hiragana.

Kanji......wow....kanji is basically a foreigners worst nightmare. Don't worry about Kanji untill you're at least somewhat fluent in Japanese. Most nouns and verbs and crap use Kanji. But you can still use hiragan just as you normally would if you don't know Kanji. （kanji looks like this 思社森字津桃花故意空) And there are freaking tens of thousands of them. So GANBATTE