I recently remembered another thing you might find useful - JWPce, which is free Japanese word processing software with a built-in dictionary.
Not only does it make it relatively easy to type Japanese, but when you highlight one or more Japanese characters in JWPce, you can press F6 on your keyboard to instantly look those characters up in JWPce's dictionary. It provides not only definitions in English, but also writes out the pronunciations of the kanji in kana.
The download links for JWPce are way down at the bottom of this page:
JWPce Support Information
Edit: I just remembered another useful thing.
Kana Quick and Dirty Guide to Japanese
Again, good luck.
Best wishes,
Apollia