I'm sure you guys have heard this sort of question alot, but i'd be grateful if someone could take the time to read and reply to this!

I have a couple of friends living in Japan that have said that I should try learning Japanese sometime, Weighing up the options I'm not sure whether I should attempt it or not, they've agreed to help with spoken and written japanese where (and when) applicable, through Instant messaging, online phone calls and providing some reading material at a later date if i'm serious about it.

My question is, for someone who has no understanding of japanese at all, what would be the major problems I would encounter if I were to begin learning it, and basically, what would I be letting myself in for? I have had experience learning another language before, though it is a western one (Dutch), so naturally I have little understanding of how to approach learning an asiatic language (other than starting with a few basic language books).

I heard that learning the Kanji is very difficult but Hiragana and Katakana could be learnt within a few months, and that spoken Japanese is relatively easy due to the fewer consonants than english, obviously i'm not sure if any of this information is accurate or not but a little promting towards the right direction would be much appreciated!