Learning japanese by myself

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I was reading an article on "Enthenic issues in Japan" (or something like that) at wikipedia. It says that Japanese don't like foreigners (westerners in particular) because they belied to be rude and impolite (form their point of view) and are more likely to commit crimes (eg. overstaying). Well, that is not surprising since the japanese practice respecting each other through their culture and language.
I remember somewhere in the article that to be able to go around Japan independently (as a permenant resedent or naturalised citizent), one must be able to know about 2000 kanji (chinese characters; hanzi; 汉字;漢字). And um... i forgot the rest, apart form North American foreigners (in japan) are the most likeable gaijin as compared to elsewhere.

By living in singapore, i am exposed to chinese language. So naturally I allready know some amount of kanji as they are mostly based from chinese.

Here are some of the japanese words I already know (in no particular order):


一　話　二　三　四　六　七　百　千　年　日　字　時間　時　火曜日　中　国　本　十　一番　上　空　星　宇宙人　人　母　前　夢　猫　英語　東京　駅　中学　日本　二学期　制服　円　木　森　水　赤　お茶　未来　海　私　人間　女　男　バス　心　山　テレビ　ほら　こんにちは　ありがとう　漫画　三十一日　五センチ　恋　双　二人　三年前　桜　北海度　お休み　見　花　市　風　外国人　大　好き　子供　うそ　大人　ゲーム　名前　日々　高　ネコ


Translation in the order listed above:
one/1, talk/language, two/2, three/3, four/4, seven/7, hundred/100, thousand/1000, year, day, character, hour/time(in length), time, tuesday, middle/medium/inside, country/nation, book, ten/10, first/best, up, sky, star, alien, person, mother, (some time) ago, dream, cat, english (language), tokyo/eastern capital, (train) station, middle school, japan, 2nd term, uniform, yen/round object, tree, forest/woods, water, red, (green) tea, future, sea, I/me, adult, female, male, bus, heart/mind, mountain, television, now look (an expression), good afternoon, thank you, manga/comic, 31st day (of the month), 5 centimeters, love, twins, 2 people/together, 3 years ago, cherry blossoms/sakura, hokkaido, rest, see/look, flower, city, wind, foreigner, grand/big/very much, like (a persorn), child, no way/lie, adult, game, name, (several) days, high/grand/very, cat

That's all i could think off at the moment.　By the way, there are some words that I don't know the kanji for or how the kanji should be red out as. (eg. は/ハ is sometimes pronounced as わ/ワ, す/ウ and つ/ツ almost sound alike and not sure when ー or っ/ッ is used as it is used to make the sound of the character that comes before or after it longer. eg. "ハッド" may sound like "hadou" when it's actually "haddo")