[evanny]

i suggest you get genki and genki work book first level. and then just go through it. since its self studying for you it should take a year to finish.
but most likely youll just drop it.
its starts with basic hirigana,katakana. youll learn phrases, numbers, basic grammar which could be rather difficult. first book also includes some 150 kanji.
to read an avarage newspaper youll need to know some 600.

edit: hirigana is for japanese words. in katakana they write down foreign people names and a lot of names taken from english - koffe, computer etc...kanji simply represents japanese words. you can write them down in hirigana or kanji. most of the times sentences consist of both + katakana.