Notes:
Listen to any japanese you can – don't worry too much about trying to understand it but try to get to the point where you can hear individual words; try looking some up to see if you can work out the sense of what's being said.
Anime (with English subtitles turned OFF, please) are great practice.
Radio: google japanese radio, take your pick … there are zillions of links
Practice recognizing the basic Kanji you learn here. Later we'll learn how to "dissect" kanji to make it easier to recognize them by their component parts.
Learn to read and write hiragana and katakana. The more you practice writing them, the more easily you'll learn to read them.
Keep a notebook or scrap paper handy and write out the syllabaries when you've got a few minutes with nothing else to do.
Scold me for not doing this more myself.
