Learning japanese help??

Travel Info
OK, I'm starting to learn japanese and I have some question about it:
1. What is the proper using of hiragana, katakana, and kanji characters? Because I sometimes find then mixed in one sentence.
2. is the reading of japanese kanji characters the same with chinese? I know chinese, so I ask this.
3. do you know any good sites for learning japanese? and tips for learning it?
Thhx very much!!!

Travel Tips

ok, im american but i know cuz i went to a japanese school for 5years. katakana is like japanese/english. for example, say gum in english right? in japanese you say gum too so its an english word so you put it in katakana. so you have to know which words are the same in english to write it in katakana. my name is michael lane so when i right it in japanese i gotta put it in katakana.锞忥讲锝癸緳锞氾讲锞? and kanji is for like so you dont have to right out all of the words. for example, mori=woods.妫?is easier to write then writing 銈傘倞. and no chinese is not the same as japanese and theyre pronounced differently. but japanese did come from china so some of the kanji`s mean the same thing but they are pronounced different. hope you pick me as best cuz that took me lots of time : p

Others
Dude, learn to speak it first. There are 20,000 words in the written languange.
try visiting these sites... you'll learn there.. I hope it helped you...

http://www.sabotenweb.com/bookmarks/lang...
http://www.uni.edu/becker/japanese222.ht...
http://www.kanjistep.com/en/jlinks/...
http://www.geocities.com/noble28_2000/...
http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/kellypark/j...
http://college.hmco.com/languages/japane...

I'm sure it will help you!!!
Another good resource is www.about.com and search for Japanese. Lots of good stuff there.
1. A simplistic answer: Hiragana and kanji are mostly used, but I've found that many Japanese shy away from using complex kanji and will use hiragana instead. Katakana is used for foreign words, scientific words, and is used like italics for emphasis.
2. Sometimes they are similar, but the pronunciation is different.
3. I don't know any sites, but the best advice I can give is to use it everyday. That means studying, watching movies, or reading.
1. Katakana for all foreign words, kanji for just about any Japanese word, hiragana for particles or "special" Japanese words that are rarely--if ever--seen in kanji. Though it's never good for you to use kanji if you are not familiar with it because then you're just trying to seem intelligent and no one likes prats.

2. No. Japanese has it's own set of readings as well as Chinese ones.

3. http://www.thejapanesepage.com and http://www.guidetojapanese.org , but you shouldn't try to learn any language (especially Japanese) online. You'll just waste a few hours of your time before giving up.