[anrakushi]

well most of these questions have been answered recently in posts, so please look through them. but at the end of the day the ebst advice i can give you is get a good beginners book.

i really can't understand how people wanting to learn the language aren't about to afford enough for a decent text book. i have at least 12 books myself.

as for words written in hiragana, there are words that are commonly written in hiragana only such as 'thank you': ありがとう but it can also be written in kanji: 有難う the thing is children's books start off with just hiragana and as they learn the kanji they progress to include kanji. it would be a difficult task for you to start of straight into kanji for learning vocabulary. leave it for later, kanji is going to take you a lot of time to master a decent level.

so for example you should learn sentences that are simple like below in hiragana first, then as you learn the kanji you can fill them in

i want to go to the park
こうえんへいきたい - no kanji
こうえんへ行きたい - started learning
公園へ行きたい - continued learning, starting to be able to use more and more.