Killer Kanji

So I've spoken to Japanese people and I've been to three of Japan's 4 main Islands. And I can tell you one thing, Japanese is a very very difficult language.
One of the hardest things about the Japanese language is the old Kanji characters that have come from China.
Japanese use Kanji every where, for exaple in the underground system it's all Kanji, the street names are in Kanji, books Magazines Newspapers & Comics are filled with Kanji and Towns and Cities have Kanji names.
The Japanese people use about 3,300 Chinese characters, while the Chinese use around 6,000. It is necessary to know about 2,000 Chinese Kanji characters to read a Japanese place name, map book, magazine or person's name.

Simple Kanji River: (Kow-wah) the Kanji actually looks like a river:
KA-WA looks vary like a river
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Mouth or Cave: Looks like a Square
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"Fire" Looks like a Flame

But some Kanji look very very abstract.

http://www.kanjisite.com/

Here are some sites on Kanji


http://coolest.com/penpen/

http://japaneseculture.about.com/bl50kanji5_arashi.htm

http://www.joyo96.org/Grade_1.html

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2046.html

http://www.logoi.com/japanese/index.html

http://www.zenkou.com/kanji.asp