Kanji can be extremely difficult for some but you have to do your best.

it is great everybody is trying to help but lets try not spread too much incorrect information. luckily kunitokotachi has been correcting along the way ^^ also i think auran just forgot to type the 1 in front of the 940, making it 1940 ^^

That hiragana and katakana table is lacking... you can find complete one below:
Hiragana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Katakana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

i don't particularly agree with flash cards, i agree with repetition in writing them over and over. this method taught me both of these in 2 weeks during my lunch break and this time only at work.

as for kanji.. well if you can find a table with all of them listed then that would be a huge table.. one of my dictionaries i use has 12,000+ kanji in it. the 大漢和辞典 (comprehensive chinese-japanese dictionary) has over 50,000 individual kanji entries and many many more compound entries. of course as kunitokotachi said you need a little less than 2000 to meet the standard list you should know.

it seems daunting but i assure you once you get stuck into them you start to understand it a lot better and things come together nicely. those first few characters might be hard but as you move along it gets easier even though the characters may be more complex.

That is true. The chart I posted isn't complete. However, it seemed to be easier for me to learn the basics of each, and then learn those compound characters next. I think you should just go by the chart I posted, then once you have those down, go ahead and finish up the rest with the information that anrakushi posted.

As for this, everyone learns a different way, so FantasyQueen, I recommend you try both ways and see which method works for you!~ And again, I highly recommend getting a textbook or taking a course. They are well worth the money.

Good luck! I'm sure you can do it!

yeah i actually did

Oh, and don't forget! I haven't learned much Katakana, so I don't know about that, but there are differing versions of the Hiragana with certain characters; one version for typing, and one version for handwriting!

What I think Anrakushi was trying to point out about your hiragana and katakana table is the fact that you left out the characters with the (") and circle. For example, が、ざ、ば、ぱ。You also don't have the kya, kyu, kyo, etc. You know, きゃ、きゅ、きょ

would you care to elaborate on this? are you sure you are not mistaking it with the subtle differences in the style of writing the character, regardless of computer or paper?
e.g. in english:
a
a

Oh, I know. It's just that when I was taught, I learned the basic versions first, and then learned those versions next. It came to me a bit easier that I would have expected.

Maybe you are right. When I was taught the Hiragana, I was told that the different versions were because one was for type and the other handwriting. Examples including:

there is nothing wrong with learning the 'basic versions' first, but you should have stated when giving the list that it is not complete because a hell of a lot of sounds in the language were missing from there. no one is going to try and learn them ALL at once anyway, you do it in stages.

as for character differences i am wondering who taught you this? because you should know that both those styles can be typed on a computer as in the picture attached below. they are both correct in written form, in fact my written form i use your typed そ and your hand-written き. my japanese friends mix them up also.

well i learned by learning the romaji version and went from there