Learning kana
You will need to learn the each of the 46 hiragana and 46 katakana. I used realkana.com , but handmade flashcards will work fine. This should take less than a week or two. Be careful:
- shi し becomes ji じ when you add the two small dashes known as a dakuten. Many other characters do something similar.
- Understand the difference between small tsu っ and big tsu つ. Incidentally, the small tsu produces a sound known as a glottal stop.
- きょ is read kyo, not kiyo. Learn the use of the small yo, ya, and yu.
- ha は is sometimes read as wa, and you should learn when and why this happens.
Once you have mastered recognition and pronunciation of kana, you will need to learn to read faster. The most effective method I have used for increasing reading speed is singing along to Japanese music on YouTube with lyrics in the video. Useful search terms include 歌詞つき (kashitsuki, lyrics included) and カラオケ (karaoke). As you should now know, karaoke is properly pronounced kah-rah-o-keh, not carry-o-key.