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Looking up is easy if you just read in a beginners book how it is done (and have a small grasp about how chars are written). You learn that in a day or two.

The simplest method for westerners likely is to recognize the so called "radical", a kind of "dominant" pattern in the chines Glyph (called a Kanji in jap. ... don't know the chines term). Simply imagine Kanji have "radicals" like A, B, T, K, M as part of their picture.

One way of looking them up is then in the "radical index", you look under M e.g. and find all glyphs that contain M ordered by the number of strokes needed to draw them. The M alone would be the first Glyph (with 4 strokes), and then the understrike and striked out M would follow with 5 strokes and somewhere later a box with the M inside (the box is usually only three strokes - that is what you need to learn about strokes, not 4 as we think) and so it goes on.

The next best index is the "stroke" index. You look at a pictogram like this: http://www.manythings.org/kanj... and figure it consists of 4 strokes. Then you go into the "stroke index" and find it at the beginning as it is a "radical" or at least contains two radicals.

Just google for "kanji for heaven" ... and you see how easy Kanjis actually are, words like paradise are just "heaven + land" and Genius is "heaven + man" and Angel is "heaven + messenger". All two kanjis in a row, not a mixed kanji.

I learned about 1000 Chinese characters when I was actively studying Japanese, which was just as software input methods were first becoming available.
The amount of mental energy and practice necessary to keep it up was untenable, and I eventually switched to correct recognition as input systems became nearly ubiquitous.
I've lost about 2/3 of the characters in the intervening years, but I can still pick up a book and read with my old dictionary handy for the confusing parts.

With writing there are some even more confusing issues, because there are a number of similar-looking characters. You wouldn't confuse them reading (because of context) or in typing (because the input method is based on pronunciation) but they would be a big bugaboo for hand writing. So not having to deal with that type of confusion leaves your brain with more cognitive space to deal with other issues.

Here's a link showing a bunch of the similar characters: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Easily_confused_Chinese_characters

That list doesn't include the first one I encountered: claw and melon. Melon has a claw, but claw doesn't.
http://www.manythings.org/kanji/d/722a.htm
http://www.manythings.org/kanji/d/74dc.htm

I learned about 1000 Chinese characters when I was actively studying Japanese, which was just as software input methods were first becoming available.
The amount of mental energy and practice necessary to keep it up was untenable, and I eventually switched to correct recognition as input systems became nearly ubiquitous.
I've lost about 2/3 of the characters in the intervening years, but I can still pick up a book and read with my old dictionary handy for the confusing parts.

With writing there are some even more confusing issues, because there are a number of similar-looking characters. You wouldn't confuse them reading (because of context) or in typing (because the input method is based on pronunciation) but they would be a big bugaboo for hand writing. So not having to deal with that type of confusion leaves your brain with more cognitive space to deal with other issues.

Here's a link showing a bunch of the similar characters: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Easily_confused_Chinese_characters

That list doesn't include the first one I encountered: claw and melon. Melon has a claw, but claw doesn't.
http://www.manythings.org/kanji/d/722a.htm
http://www.manythings.org/kanji/d/74dc.htm

And the ridiculous German signs stating “ACHTUNG! VERBOTEN” (Attention! Forbidden!), but no other text explaining what it is that is forbidden. Which makes no sense at all!

I don't know about the reaction in Germany, but among my peers in the USA at the time we just assumed it meant the same as "Authorized Access Only". As far as signs go it makes at least as much sense as, "This door must remain closed at all times".*shrug*

The enemies literally say things like “Hey du da mit dem Hemd! Dich mach ich fertig!” (Hey you there with the shirt! I’m finishing you!) Which is about the lamest possible thing you could say in German.
That, out of the face of someone looking like a real evil soldier grunt... is incredibly silly. I always had to laugh my ass of when I heard it. ^^

Yeah, you'd think that with the commitment required by even informal German to state anything meaninfully, native German speakers would invest more thought into what they say.;)

An American exploration company has found the wreck of an ancient Greek ship in a very deep area of the Mediterranean Sea. It may be the deepest ancient shipwreck ever found. The discovery questions a long-held belief that ancient sailors lacked skills needed to guide ships in open seas.

And here is a link: http://www.manythings.org/voa/01/010313sn_t.htm

Now this doesn't exactly prove the point from my earlier post, but it does support the idea radtea introduced: archeologists can make stupid assumptions, and its pretty absurd to state as fact that these tooth decorations were not a sign of social position. They may not of been, but the evidence in the underlying articles is NOT convincing either way.

If that were the case, we'd better tell the permafrost that it should stay frozen. Because, if you haven't heard, it is melting right now.

And if you ask if that is bad, well, scientists estimate that fourteen percent of the worlds carbon is stored in permafrost. Fourteen percent of ALL carbon, not only of the CO2 and methane in the atmosphere. And it is mostly in the form of methane, which upon release, would increase the greenhouse effect considerably. See also positive feedback loop.

Except, my sister gave me a "deluxe" language training software package. Windows-only, of course, which defeated the idea of learning with my Powerbook. But after I installed it, I tried it for about twenty minutes before I got sick of the pathetic interface, dog-slow loading times (they do their best to prevent you from loading it on the hard drive, too) and the overall horrible audio tracks and pixelated graphics. If anyone's seen the sort of drivel produced out of Toolbook 2.0 -- along with the associated media from the time when that program was popular -- that's the sort of product my sister paid $50 for. I gave up, went online, and started doing my own searching.

My personal approach to learning Japanese isn't driven out of any specific need -- just a deep-seated curiosity (and one I've had before I'd ever played video games or watched anime, mind you.) I decided I'd learn the alphabets first, adding kanji slowly, until I could safely go purchase a few kids' books written almost entirely in hiragana and katakana. It's worked, so far. My friend is taking courses the traditional way, through a community college, and though his speaking abilities are obviously better at this stage, he's got some serious dependence on romaji.

My single greatest resource for learning the characters has been, oddly enough, the Microsoft and Apple IMEs. I used a word processor to make myself worksheets and practice writing the characters. Five minutes and 100 sheets of "appropriated" office paper later, I had a stack of worksheets to practice with that beat any of the ones I found online or as samples in books. Best of all, if I needed more practice with a specific group, I could just print more of the same worksheet whenever I wanted it.

As for online references, someone compiled a great list of them already. In particular, my favorite from that list has been Takasugi Shinji's site, written from the perspective of a linguist. It's also got a great java applet that helps you memorize the kana alphabets -- allowing you to switch fonts to get a greater familiarity with writing styles.

In short -- I've not found any particular free-as-in-beer resource for language learning, and I don't think there's likely to be any because such courses are usually subjective. Perhaps it's something MIT and OpenCourseware can tackle in the future. In the meantime, IMEs are your best friend, and try to avoid getting dependent on romaji. :)