One, I've spent over 200 hours on Japanese so far, and I hate to see that go to waste. I reached a comfortable in Thai after about 300 hours, and 2 trips to Thailand. Japanese might take a little longer, but that 200 hour down payment is a great start.
Two, I think I've solved the kanji puzzle. I've found a great method surfing Amazon the other day. Remembering the Kanji I by James Heisig (RTK1) is a book that teaches the meanings and how to draw all the Joyo (basic 2000 or so) kanji. It doesn't teach the readings at this point - that's done in book 2. But his philosophy of "divide and conquer" seems to be just what I need, after proving to myself trying to do everything at once is impossible. Here is a free pdf of the first 113 pages that describes the method.
