I installed Japanese text support on my computer. This lets me read/write Japanese characters.
Using Japanese Text Input on a Microsoft Windows PC
There are technically 2 keyboard's installed on my computer, English (United States) and Japanese, which I switch between with shift+alt. I just change the input method to Hiragana on my keyboard (when in Japanese mode) so I can use the QWERTY keyboard positions to type still.
On the subject of confusion between hiragana and katakana, just study them more ;p Like 30 minutes a day. I know there is a lot of them (46 of each!) but it can be done with persistence. Now, kanji on the other hand... I'm very lazy when it comes to studying kanji ;p