Re: ???!
Lots of motivation, repetition, and preferably a real class. I've learned that using internet sources aren't the best. They can be kind of confusing. Having a real Japanese person or non Japanese whose been trained in the language and has been to Japan is the best for explaining the little nuances and exceptions. Japanese is a very...hm. Well, let's just say that a lot of things are left out when spoken and you just have to infer from what has already been said to understand what is meant.
Plus with a classroom, you'll have more motivation to actually first memorize the hiragana and katakana charts and then kanji because you'll get quizzed on those a lot.
If you don't wanna take a class and want to learn on your own, maybe you should try with a buddy and get a textbook. I recommend Genki: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese and its workbook companion. If you can find them, get the audio CDs... Note: ...they're floating around on the internet. If you can't find them, Just send me a message and I'll see what I can do (: