There are about 100 katakana, 100 hiragana and about 2,000 basic kanji to learn to be able to read and write Japanese.
(About 5,000 kanji if you want to do it really well!!)
Learning katakana first is useful if you are planning to be in Japan as it helps when reading signs and menus as it is also used to write words which have come from western languages.
Does anyone else have any thoughts, opinions, experiences or questions about reading or writing Japanese?