>>79
There are two 'alphabets' (I don't have a great knowledge about language terminology, but alphabet is the closest word I can use to describe them). They are alphabets in that, each character represents a syllable, a phonetic. Each has 46 characters you need to learn, with variations, bringing the real total i suppose to about 66. This works by the use of two little dashes like " or a little circle like the degree symbol. This sounds very confusing at first, but the best example I can give without using any pictures or actual Japanese text is that "KA" on its own is pronounced "KA" but adding a " to it makes it "GA".
Hiragana, the most common of these writing systems, is what is used for things like compound words and other points of grammar, and also is used when one does not want/cannot use kanji for the word they want to say. It also plays an important part in conjunction with Kanji (the more complicated characters you see) to creat advectives and verb variations.
Katakana, the one that people seem to have most problems with (probably due to the fact that it's not as easy to come across as the others) is used primarily for writing words of foreign origin, and can get confusing because of the Japanese tongue, in which words such as "ADVANCE" have to be changed so Japanese people can pronounce them ("ADOBANSU"). Speaking Japanese, funnily enough, you will find you'll have to pronounce foreign words in this broken up way for anyone to be able to understand you properly. Katakana is also used for certain kanji words in comics, sheerly for simplicity's sake.
Kanji, the most complicated aspect of the writing system, is godknow's how many (to get by about 2,000) characters of chinese origin that represent a concept or an object. They get confusing when you realise that most of them have two readings (for example the kanji for "now/current" can be pronounced "IMA" or "KON", depending on whether it's grouped with another kanji or not. They conjugate in ways that seem very chinese, too, for example, "DENSHA" (train) literally means electric (den) wheel/car (sha). If I've explained this all terribly I apologise, but that's essentially the bare bones of it. If you're confused hopefully someone else could clear it up for you.