First you need to be able to view Japanese text:

---FOR WIN XP---
STEP 1.) Open the Control and double-click on the "Regional and Language Settings" icon.
STEP 2.) Here are your current Regional settings. Click on the "Languages" tab.
STEP 3.) Make sure the check box labeled "Install files for East Asian Languages" is selected. If it is not selected, then check it now.
STEP 4.) Click on the "Advanced" tab.
STEP 5.) From the drop-down menu under "Language for non-Unicode programs", select "Japanese"
STEP 6.) Select APPLY and then OK to save the changes. A restart will be necessary, save all work and select YES to restart your system.
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---FOR WIN 2K---
STEP 1.) Go to the Control Panel of Windows and select "Regional Options", double click it to open it.
STEP 2.) At the "General" tab, go to the "Language settings for the system" section and scroll down to select "Japanese".
NOTE: Do NOT change the language settings for the current USER, as that will also change your currency and other settings.
STEP 3.) Click on "Apply", to apply the settings. DO NOT CLOSE THE WINDOW AND DO NOT REBOOT YET. The system will ask you for the Windows 2000 installation disk if the files are not already installed.
STEP 4.) Now click on "Set default..."
NOTE: The "Japanese" option will not appear here if you have not yet apply the changes from Step 2 to 3!
STEP 5.) At the "Select System Locale" dialog box drop down, select "Japanese" as the appropriate locale.
STEP 6.) Click OK to close this box, Click OK to save the Region settings and NOW, REBOOT THE SYSTEM.
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Now we are ready to start seting up the typing

---FOR WIN XP---
STEP 1.) Right-click any open space on the taskbar. Point to Toolbars, then choose Language Bar.
STEP 2.) Right-click on the EN icon (or whatever is there) and choose Settings.
STEP 3.) This dialogue box will pop-up. Choose Add.
STEP 4.) Choose Japanese from the drop-down menu and click OK.
STEP 5.) Click "Key Setting"
That opens up Advanced Key Settings. Look in the Action part you'll see list of languages saying "Switch to ...." Here is where you assign a *specific* command to instantly switch to the languages you want.
STEP 6.) Click on "Switch to Japanese ...." to select it, then click "Change Key Sequence".
STEP 7.) Assign a combination you like.
STEP 8.) Press OK all the way out and test it. you should see your language bar on the buttom right changing (in my case I have Thai language too)
Now to switch the Japanese input mode.
STEP 9.) Select the key combination you have assigned in STEP 7 for Japanese and switch input mode.
You'll notice a capital A in it. If you don't see it, try drag your mouse to extend the language bar to the left. That "A" tells you that if you type anything right now, you'll ended up having ordinary english aphabets.
STEP 10.) To toggle the mode to input japanese character, press ALT+grave (the top left button in your keyboard which has ~ with it). On some keyboards, the key to toggle is maybe ALT+. (period).
The toggle should allow you to see the "A" change into a japanese letter. ("ah" in Japanese) This will allow you to type in Japanese. Now to test the configuration.
STEP 11.) Open a text editor and input Japanese by typing Romaji.
NOTE: It may become necessary to repeat step 9 through 10 again if Japanese hiragana does not appear.
STEP 12.) At the text editor, try it out by typing "kari". You will get a hiragana letter saying kari with an underline beneath it.
The underline is a unique function for japanese input system. it indicates the letters are still active.
STEP 13a.) To finish typing, simply press Enter and the underline will be gone. You will have "kari" in hiragana.
STEP 13b.) To convert the hiragana into Kanji/Katakana don't press enter yet. Instead press Spacebar.
Pressing spacebar once will convert the character in to the default kanji or katakana. Pressing the spacebar again a list will appear to allow you to choose the correct character. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to select the character you want.
STEP 14b.) Once you have selected the character you want, just press ENTER and the character will be selected.
--------------------------------------------

---FOR WIN 2K---
STEP 1.) Go to the Control Panel in Windows and select "Regional Options" and double click it.
STEP 2.) At the regional options dialog box, click on the "Input Locales" tab.
STEP 3.) At the "Installed Input Locales" click on the "Add..." button.
STEP 4.) At the "Add Input Locale" dialog, select "Japanese" for the "Input Locale" and "Japanese Input System (MS-IME2000)" Then click on OK. STEP 5.) Now at the regional options dialog box, go to the Hot Keys for Input Locale section, highlight "Switch to English" and click on the "Change Key Sequence..." button.
STEP 6.) Click on "Enable Key Sequence" and select the key combination you wish to use to quickly enable and return to English input. Then click OK.
STEP 7.) Now select "Switch to Japanese" and repeat STEP 5 and STEP 6 to assign the keys for Japanese.
STEP 8.) Now, at the regional options dialog, you want to change the IME Settings for Japanese. Press APPLY button at this dialog box to apply the settings set so far. The "IME settings..." button should be enabled when you highlight Japanese input.
STEP 9.) Click on "IME settings..."
STEP 10.) Now at the Microsoft IME 2000 settings page, click on the icon at the upper right of the dialog box that has the A letter with some color bars.
NOTE: Follow the next few steps VERY carefully, it will be somewhat complex.
STEP 11.) At the long list of key entries, scroll around and look for the IME On/Off setting
STEP 12.) Once you find the entry setting, look at the first column to see if the key required to toggle the Japanese input IME is in Japanese or not. If it is in Japanese and not some other key function (like CTRL+3 or CTRL+., etc.) then you will need to add a new key to use. Otherwise, if it is an English key function just cancel out of the Regional Options and go to STEP 17.
STEP 13.) Click on the Key add button.
STEP 14.) At the dialog box that opens up, at the drop down find the key combination "CTRL+." (Control and period). After you have it selected use your mouse to click OK. (Pressing Enter may change the key combination box to ENTER, which is not what you want.)
STEP 15.) Check to make sure that CTRL+. has been added to also trigger the IME.
NOTE: You will have two entries to toggle the IME, one is CTRL+. and the other is the original Japanese entry. This is normal.
STEP 16.) Click OK to all dialog boxes of the Regional Options dialogs until the Regional Options are closed.

Done~

Thx for the explaination! Now maybe we can make this a sticky...
_________________

Hello peeps,

I'm currently using windows xp,which chinese star cannot be installed. Since i'm a student here and i can only listen to japanese song,or watching japanese drama,i don't think i can learn japanese in a proper way,what i know is those simple terms.

Fortunately,i found this forum,i think if i'm able to learn to type kanji,eventually i could pick up japanese . So,the main question is :

1)Where to get the program to type kanji?
2)How is it going to be operated? Is it similiar to chinese star? i.e.: i type the romanji "arrigato" and the kanji word will appear,is that true?
3)By the way,what is onegaishimasu means?

Ignore the english error. Thanks

Onegaishimasu means please, similar to kudesai.
_________________

eternal wrote:

Hello peeps, I'm currently using windows xp,which chinese star cannot be installed. Since i'm a student here and i can only listen to japanese song,or watching japanese drama,i don't think i can learn japanese in a proper way,what i know is those simple terms. Fortunately,i found this forum,i think if i'm able to learn to type kanji,eventually i could pick up japanese . So,the main question is : 1)Where to get the program to type kanji? 2)How is it going to be operated? Is it similiar to chinese star? i.e.: i type the romanji "arrigato" and the kanji word will appear,is that true? 3)By the way,what is onegaishimasu means? Ignore the english error. Thanks

you do not need a third-party software to type kanji in XP. You just need multi-region support enabled.
Follow this thread...
http://jdorama.com/viewtopic_2916.htm&highlight=japanese+type
_________________

Milkchan wrote:

Onegaishimasu means please, similar to kudesai.

I thought onegaishimasu had a more "I beg of you" meaning..
_________________

Himawari, yureru, taiyou no shita de..
Kanjiteita, kaze wo... kimi wo.

DragonSpirit164 wrote:

I thought onegaishimasu had a more "I beg of you" meaning..

According to my Japanese teacher (slightly tongue in cheek) there's nothing you can't get from somebody Japanese by bowing deeply enough and repeating 'onegaishimasu' until their resistance wears down.

I don't think 'kudasai' would work in the same way.

Download NJStar. Free 30 day trial does not disappear for some reason

http://www.njstar.com/communicator/download.php

eternal wrote:

Hello peeps, I'm currently using windows xp,which chinese star cannot be installed. Since i'm a student here and i can only listen to japanese song,or watching japanese drama,i don't think i can learn japanese in a proper way,what i know is those simple terms.

you are wrong.. you can install chinese star in xp... you just need to get chinese star xp and before you install it you will need to install the east asian language pack that come together with xp installation disk.. to install the east asian language you will need to go to control panel and click on the date, time, language and regional option icon, then click on the add other languages and click on the languages tab, in the language tab just click on the install files for east asian language text box and make sure you have your windows xp installation disk inside your cd-rom and it will show that it is installing then apply it...
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PaulTB wrote:

According to my Japanese teacher (slightly tongue in cheek) there's nothing you can't get from somebody Japanese by bowing deeply enough and repeating 'onegaishimasu' until their resistance wears down. I don't think 'kudasai' would work in the same way.

...interesting.... will it work with women!?...hmmm i wonder....

Neko wrote:

Download NJStar. Free 30 day trial does not disappear for some reason http://www.njstar.com/communicator/download.php

LOL i did that 2..i've had it since 2001 and it works fine!

like arnel said just dl or install the multi-language addons....
here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=24A66277-CD9F-4332-A6F1-52B85A6470BD&displaylang=EN

PaulTB wrote:

According to my Japanese teacher (slightly tongue in cheek) there's nothing you can't get from somebody Japanese by bowing deeply enough and repeating 'onegaishimasu' until their resistance wears down.

Sort of true. But usually this is done to do EXTREME things, such as beggin for forgiveness, begging not to be fired, in essence begging. The person you are begging to may or may not give you what you want. And when you are in this position (figuratively and literally), you are considered "lower" than them. If they feel simpathy, then they will give you what you requested, and if they are in a bad mood to begin with (in which a lot of cases, they may be, if you are asking for forgiveness) they could just ignore you and walk away.

lovelessemotion wrote:

...interesting.... will it work with women!?...hmmm i wonder....

Of course.............NOT!
_________________

Here's my Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/kwan1?ref=profile

niko2x wrote:

Of course.............NOT!

i'm not sure man! they LOVE american men... i've heard some stories...hmmm.... i wonder

lovelessemotion wrote:

i'm not sure man! they LOVE american men... i've heard some stories...hmmm.... i wonder

They may or may not like american men more, but if your only pickup line is just "begging" you will definitly go home alone.
_________________

Here's my Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/kwan1?ref=profile

how to use this njstar thingie? i've just downloaded it ,it provides service for only 30 days,means that i can't use any longer after 30 days,right? awh...too bad then.

The microsoft link can be downloaded only if i'm using windows 2000,i'm using windows xo,so i can't download it,is it?

By the way,how to use this njstar? quite complicated...

���΂��A�ق�Ƃ�

what does that mean? it just a very simple japanese temrs

the link i provided IS for windowsXP!!!! trust me i have it i dled it it works fine!!!!

���΂��A�ق�Ƃ� =watashi baka hontoni ...means i'm really an idiot...i think or something like that....

as for NJstar IT NEVER EXPIRES..it says 30 day trial but it never expires...and its very simple to use....i haven't used it in a while will try it out tomorrow and will let ya know the basics

eternal wrote:

Hello peeps, I'm currently using windows xp,which chinese star cannot be installed. Since i'm a student here and i can only listen to japanese song,or watching japanese drama,i don't think i can learn japanese in a proper way,what i know is those simple terms. Fortunately,i found this forum,i think if i'm able to learn to type kanji,eventually i could pick up japanese . So,the main question is : 1)Where to get the program to type kanji? 2)How is it going to be operated? Is it similiar to chinese star? i.e.: i type the romanji "arrigato" and the kanji word will appear,is that true? 3)By the way,what is onegaishimasu means? Ignore the english error. Thanks

With most Japanese Typing programs, you write the word, then press space and It will appear a series of kanji. Depending which kanji you need to use, you just select it.

I recomend you to first learn how to write well , just in case you haven't, and then start to learn the kanjis, etc.

which kanji i need?? oh no,it's getting more and more complex,my god!

Which one is better njstar or the microsoft one? Since
the njstar won't expire,i'll continue this software already.

Hmm...okay i have a question here

�킽�� �A ���A���^�V�� the romanji i typed for these words that show the results are watashi,watashi,watashiwa...and ahem,it's like,so hard to memorize ,unlike chinese words,there's only �� represents the meaning "me or i". Perhaps there has other meanings such as English?
Like the difference between "me" and "i"

�ڂ��� if i'm not mistaken,bokura means i for guys,1 of the member of this forum said so. Hmm...since i can type kanji,which is so WOW!!!!!! to me,i think i can learn to write kanji from this way,don't ya think so? The main source might be Ayumi hamasaki and mia kuraki's lyrics,wohoo!

Of course,never forget to express my appreciation for the contribution u guys gave,especially the njstar . U have my gratitude.

eternal wrote:

Hmm...okay i have a question here �킽�� �A ���A���^�V�� the romanji i typed for these words that show the results are watashi,watashi,watashiwa...and ahem,it's like,so hard to memorize ,unlike chinese words,there's only �� represents the meaning "me or i". Perhaps there has other meanings such as English? Like the difference between "me" and "i"

both r good....i use ms when i need t type something quickly...but i use njstar for class assignments and stuff...

�킽�� �A ���A���^�V all mean the same thing... use the middle(kanji) 1 more often than the other2.... and try not to use the right(katakana) 1..as u don't write watashi in katakana ...just use ��

katana? what's that,a new vocabulary to me here.

Thx for the advice,less.However,i'm learning japanese,so do u think i should learn in case i come across some "katana",say if i wanna surf on japanese website,how could you possibly say that katana won't appear?

Most importantly,hod do i diffrentiate kanji and katana if i'm typing japanese words

�݂Ȃ���A�ƂĂ������肪�Ƃ������܂� (full of grammatical error,anyone please correct it)

IMO the microsoft IME is much more better then NJStar. It's more confortable for writing long sentences fastly, besides that NJStar doesn't support all combinations.

Quote:

katana

If you mean Hiragana & Katakana by this, it should be kana.

Quote:

hod do i diffrentiate kanji and katana if i'm typing japanese words

What do you exactly mean by this? When to use kanji and when kana? IMO you shouldn't overdo like many learners to insist on using kanji everywhere you can. Try to concentrate on kanji you learnt.
If you use to many kanji you don't know, you can easily use the wrong kanji (since many have different readings as you know).