Well, I just happened upon 4ch (yesterday...) and I came here to talk with some Japanese people. This thread seemed like an excellent place to start. I was considering buying a book on japanese so I could understand what was being said on some of these threads, and so I could better converse with the locals. After all, I can't seem to get around how complicated Kanji is! I was watching a documentury on Japan once, and I am startled by how much trouble people go through to use it. How many characters are there in kanji, anway?