Japanese is not that hard of a language to speak, its the writing system that's a challenge. You have to use a special technique to learn the 3000 everyday kanji or you'll spend forever on it. Everyone raves about "Remembering the Kanji" so you should check it out if you ever want to get literate in the language:
http://www.kanjiclinic.com/reviewheisigwiig.htm
It's kind of like Mandarin. Mandarin is really really easy if you strip away the tones and the writing system, both things you just need a special way to learn.
If you can understand the difference between the wa & ga particles in japanese and can explain it, I'll be truely impressed.