Practicing Typing Japanese input Using a Computer

 To write lists and read stuff in Japanese, I'd recommend:

3. Enable website reading helper and dictionary - Rikaichan

1. Rikaichan is for Mozilla Firefox (not Internet Explorer). Go to Tools->Add Ons, and search for Rikaichan. After Rikaichan is installed, you will need to download the Japanese dictionary. After this, you can read any Japanese website with some help!
2. Also, Rikaichan contains a lookup dictionary that you can refer to anytime. However, input using hiragana is required, so enabling Japanese input for your OS is a requirement.
4. Enable Japanese input on Windows OS - follow this guide
 
How to Set Your Windows Up
    1. Go to Start (as usual).
    2. Go to Control Panel. Select Date, Time, and Language Options.
        Or Regional and Language Options.
    3. In Regional and Language Options, select the Languages Tab.
    4.Under Languages Tab, check out Supplemental language support.
        Tick the box Install files for East Asian languages. Click Apply.
        This will install the files needed for Japanese.
        At this point you may now read Japanese fonts in Internet Explorer
        or Notepad instead of characters like this -> [] [] [] [] [] [] [] []  
5. Now, to be able to WRITE, you must select input language - Japanese.