Japanese is surprisingly easy to get into, and hard to master. You don't need to know all the grammar in this book to make your way around Japan, you can get a

Japanese is surprisingly easy to get into, and hard to master. You don't need to know all the grammar in this book to make your way around Japan, you can get a basic amount of grammar down in a few weeks and simply working on "knowing more words" is then all you need. But, much like English, if you want to know all the subtleties and intricacies: strap yourself in, we're in for a rough ride. There are lots of finer details you can get lost in, just like any established language. It's much easier than language like Finnish or Russian in some respects (lots of things like needing to match genders, modes, plurality, etc. simply don't exist in Japanese), but then there are also things that are much harder (like knowing which level of politeness to use when talking to someone). It's all about what you consider "knowing Japanese". Microsoft could never hope to come up with something as convoluted as Japanese, or even modern English. They're both waaaay more nuts if looked at in their entirety =P