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?

Great timing, thank you!
I was just trying to decide which one to study first!

Yeah, katakana is the best one to start on!
Kanji is crazy!!!! so many of them and they all look the same!

Katakana:

Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnNUMIlXCkE



Hiragana:

Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LA0EiAtQeM

In my experience, Katakana is like print for the Roman alphabet, Hiragana is like cursive and Kanji is like a cross between caligraphy and sanscript (nice to look at but not many bother to learn it today). I would definitely start with Katakana first. It is the basic alphabet used for Japanese media today. Most of the characters consist of basically 3 pen strokes.

*Protip* Pay special attention to the direction of the strokes. Passing the stroke the wrong way can make the letter look like a different one (thus making you say something completely different). I know from experience.

Hiragana would be second. It will me much easier since it is very close to Katakana and only has an average of 4 strokes. This alphabet is generally used for handwriting.
Hope this was of some help in your decision.

Thank you Hoopajoo!!
That is very interesting and helpful!!!

I think i found Katakana most useful first.
Great for signs and menus and stuff like that.