So, who here has learnt or is learning Japanese? Any advice for a new starter? I think audio books for speaking, something I could listen to during the day. Or is in not so simple?

My sister has lived in Japan 18 odd years. She can speak it so well Japanese people don't know she's Irish and think she's Japanese on the phone. In saying that she still has trouble reading the more complex version of Japanese writing. 

 

For a European it is probably one of the harder if not hardest to learn due to it having nothing similar to what we are used to. But it's not impossible, just hard. The more you work at it the better. But it would be probably best to hang out with others who speak it or make some friends in Japan that you can Skype and practice with. Trying to learn an any language by yourself is a lot harder.

you learn a language better when you HAVE to learn it. best way to learn is to go live in tokyo.

failing that, rosetta stone is very good. also, listen to podcasts.  you'll start to pick up patterns and learn to distinguish between the different sounds.

http://www.tbsradio.jp/pod/

I tried practicing learning Japanese when I was 19 years old. Didn't work out and I lost interest. My excuse was that I would never have the need to speak the language and I never watched anime on Japanese audio.