I just got done with the hiragana part of the Heisig book and I must say, I am absolutely STUNNED that I can comprehend this stuff! Thank you so much Tony. Getting familiar with the characters with the voiced marks will be my next challenge, but it will be small in comparison to what I just learned. I have one more question before I go on to the katakana. How do you all type using the hiragana on your keyboards? Did you have to purchase a special keyboard? I'm just wondering because I'd love to be able to write a little and ask questions here using what I've learned. Thanks again!
Best,
Sam
Here's a walkthrough for how to enable East Asian text support on your computer:
http://newton.uor.edu/Departments&Programs/AsianStudiesDept/Language/ind...
Personally, I'm using a Microsoft IME that lets me type in hiragana/katakana by typing the equivalent romaji on an English keyboard, and will convert to kanji automatically depending on the word. I don't remember exactly where I downloaded it from, but I'm sure Google can help you there!
Congatulations on finishing the ひらがな！ Still a long ways to go, but it feels pretty good to reach that first milestone, doesn't it? （＾。＾v
No, you don't need a special keyboard to type Japanese. Any modern OS will let you do it just using a standard keyboard. If you're using Windows XP then you may need the install CD in add the fonts and such that you need, but Mac OS X and Vista should do it out of the box—you just need to turn that functionality on.
As Leah mentioned, if you just Google for "<OS name> Japanese input", then you should find plenty of tutorials. If you can't find a good one, let us know!
Good luck with the かたかな! Those stories are a bit weaker than the ones in the ひらがな section, so if one doesn't work for you don't hesitate to come back here to look for advice!