Everytime someone asks about this, I tend to blab on for about 10 pages. :)
I was never lucky enough to have classes nearby either, so I taught myself Japanese. So, yes, it is quite possible to do without a teacher. However, it takes a lot of dedication, practice, and resources.
You should really determine both your lingual strengths and goals before tackling a new language. You say you just want a simple understanding... but what is that going to entail? Because if you just want to know useful phrases, you could easily memorize them without any knowledge of grammar. Yet you also seem to be looking at learning kanji, which is going deeper into the language. I think once you get started, you'll find that it's going to be hard to learn limited pieces of Japanese - for instance, memorizing hiragana and kanji will be useless for reading unless you know grammar patterns and vocabulary as well. Every part builds off the other one, and although it's not necessary to know every last shred of idiomatic phrasing or slang to get a good grasp of the language, you're going to have to work harder at it than you think.
That being said, I recommend learning the very basic fundamentals of the language first. I know a lot of people say you should start off by learning your kana, and that needs to be done too, but I would just recommend looking at simple sentence structure, particles, and parts of the language, etc. Nothing deep, but just get a beginner's feel for how Japanese works before bothering to really commit yourself to it.
Recommended Resources:
Tim's Takamatsu (has a very brief overview plus lotsa info)
Nihongo Resources (has a very detailed overview... but it's a great site)
The book "Teach Yourself Japanese" by Helen Ballhatchet and Stefan Kaiser
Then, I would memorize all your hiragana and katakana.
Recommended Resources:
Kana Chart (really cute site)
The book "Kanji & Kana" by Mark Spahn and Wolfgang Hadamitzky (they also publish a kanji workbook)
From there, it's up to you - you'll usually need to work in a healthy dose of grammar, vocab, and kanji, which can actually be done all at once. (For example, if you're finding words in your grammar examples you don't know, you can make the effort to look up the kanji and memorize it, which will also double as new vocab.)
Recommended Resources:
Online Japanese-English Dictionary
A good Japanese-English dictionary for home (Random House is highly recommended)
Kiki's Kanji Dictionary
Continuously keep in mind what you want to be geared toward, too. Yes, I totally admit it, I was looking to achieve fluency in being able to read manga and J-pop lyrics in Japanese, as well as understanding anime without subtitles. There's different vocabulary to get used to in your typical anime and manga, as opposed to... oh, say, reading a Japanese science textbook.
Anyway, the most important thing about learning Japanese is
practice, and I can't stress that enough. Once you've got even a tiny bit of understanding, start trying to translate simple things... like kids' sites at
LaLaBit. Doesn't matter if you need to pick up your dictionary a billion times, it really will help you to actively recognize grammar patterns and kanji/kana.
And keep in touch with people who know the language! You can come back here and ask questions if you need to; the
AnimeLyrics Forum actually has a really great language section too. And you can always get a
Japanese Penpal - there are a lot who are willing to help you with the language.
I think I blabbed on long enough...
By the way, your English is lovely! Too bad I know very little German, and no real French or Italian. Ich liebe Deutsche. :)
, and I'll try memorizing as much as possible from your awesome links. 