Here’s the book. Or at least I think it is.
Moshi moshi?
3.5 months in a total immersion setting might get one “conversant” in survival Japanese. It would not get one fully conversational. Jus’ sayin’
Fair enough- “fully” definitely went too far. Full time study in a competency-based total immersion program will get most motivated students to the point where they can handle maybe 85% of daily life and able to deal with simple conversations related to the self, family, daily life, etc. Basically, where the OP would like to be.
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/57ad81e4bbd6a/Hiragana%20Katakana%20Picture%20Mnemonics.jpg
I visited Japan last year. I wanted to at least be able to read signs. This little chat above helped me a lot with the Hiragana and Katakana. I learned them all in a few hours and then used one of the many available flashcard phone apps to review.
Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
Sorry, maybe this link will work: http://www.scoop.it/t/memory-by-mad/p/4013402240/2013/12/30/hiragana-katakana-picture-mnemonics-jpg-3885x2555-pixels
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Yes! Avoid the “pepperoni” accent (PEP-er O-ni), as it is often called.
I think I had the same book. Didn’t matter if it was strictly correct, but it helped you remember! Don’t even worry so much about knowing the Japanese word. You can learn that later. That’s kind of the beauty of Kanji-- you don’t have to struggle with pronunciation.
America was called “merika” in Japan for a long time because they didn’t hear the “a” sound at the beginning.
Yeah, it was really useful. Knowing kanji has really helped me here in Taiwan. Totally different pronunciation, but I can understand signs and menus.
Is it possible/realistic to learn sufficient Japanese?
No, not given your time frame and your study hours. Not. Even. Remotely. Close. You won’t get to have a conversation with someone in Japanese - at best you’ll be able to say a set phrase and listen to a response that you almost certainly won’t understand and then look where they are pointing and go over there.
But that shouldn’t stop you from studying. Every little bit you learn will increase the value of the experience you have traveling, trust me. There is no time when it’s too late to start, but starting earlier is always better!
When I started studying Japanese I didn’t have any goal except to improve.
Its quite possible to learn hiragana/katakana in an hour or two.
That’s like saying it’s possible for someone to learn to write their capital-only A-B-Cs in an hour or two. It’s certainly possible (but not really likely for most adults) and even if they manage it, it isn’t like it’s going to be hugely helpful in everyday life.
Oh look! That one’s TSU! Oh, and that’s KI! Great, you know some of your letters. You’re also acting like a 3 year old. 
(that said, once you do get to the point of knowing enough hiragana to start “sounding out” actual words, it really is a delightful feeling of accomplishment)).
Ha! That’s exactly what I was thinking, but didn’t post. I had spent quite a bit of time in Japan before my first trip to Taiwan and was pleasantly surprised at how much signage I could read. You really get a sense of how useful it is… I couldn’t speak either language much at all, but could read a certain amount of both. What’s really cool is when you start to be able to guess what a character means (or at lest roughly what type of thing it is referring to) based on the radicals when you’ve never seen it before. Not great odds of being correct, but sometimes!
Make that a day or two, and I’ll believe it.
They are similar and, for example, the k’s and g’s, the t’s and D’s, are differentiated by a simple mark.
But I would just encourage people to jump right into it. It isn’t nearly as hard as you think and its not Russian.
When I took Intro Japanese it took us all a lot longer than that.
There may be some who could accurately commit to memory ~50 unfamiliar symbols and what sounds they represent in an hour, but for the vast majority of people I’d say this is not possible.
I thought about what I said earlier and I don’t want to be a negative Nellie, so I am prepared to help you learn a few things. I really hope you do prove me wrong and get to know more Japanese than I thought you could.
Anyway, here are some of the first kanji that any tourist should learn:
Logograph - 入
Meaning - enter/inside
Pronunciation - (not relevant)
Usefulness - for knowing where the queue starts, or where the entrance door is.
Not to be confused with - 人, meaning person.
Logograph - 出
Meaning - exit/leave
Pronunciation - (not relevant)
Usefulness - for knowing where the exit is.
Won’t be easily confused with anything else.
Logograph - 女
Meaning - woman
Pronunciation - (not relevant)
Usefulness - for finding where the woman’s toilet or changing room is.
Won’t be easily confused with anything else.
Logograph - 男
Meaning - man
Pronunciation - (not relevant)
Usefulness - for finding where the men’s toilet or changing room is.
Won’t be easily confused with anything else but me 勇
Logograph - 口
Meaning - mouth
Pronunciation - (not relevant)
Usefulness - for finding where a gate or entrance is, particularly at public buildings.
Won’t be easily confused with anything else.
Logograph - 北
Meaning - north
Pronunciation - “kita”
Usefulness - for finding directions or in place names.
May be confused with other kanji so study the form well.
Logograph - 東
Meaning - east
Pronunciation - “higashi”
Usefulness - for finding directions or in place names.
May be confused with other kanji so study the form well.
Logograph - 南
Meaning - south
Pronunciation - “minami”
Usefulness - for finding directions or in place names.
May be confused with other kanji so study the form well.
Logograph - 西
Meaning - west
Pronunciation - “nishi”
Usefulness - for finding directions or in place names.
May be confused with 酒, meaning alcohol, pronounced “osake”
That’s your first lesson.
Now these are two I wish I’d learned before visiting! Although not knowing them did lead to a funny story.
I was in a restaurant in Kyoto, and of course needed to go to the bathroom. I was a little drunk, and ended up standing outside the bathrooms, looking back and forth between the two, not having any idea which I should use.
As I’m stuck there, a Japanese lady comes up to use the bathroom as well, and she gives me this, “What is this creeper doing hanging around the bathroom?!?” look as she sidled past me. She then did an actually double take as she turned to go into the bathroom, saw the sign, and suddenly realized I couldn’t read. She then pointed me in the right direction.
As I’m walking back to my table, I happened to pass her and her friends at their table, who all then burst out laughing. I paused to thank her again on the way by. I’m sure I was the story of the night for them!