Japanese text input on Windows Vista

In this tutorial I demonstrate how to set up and use Japanese text input on Windows Vista:

Setup

go to "Start" → "Control Panel" → "Clock, Language, and Region" → "Change keyboards or other input methods" → "Change keyboards" → "Add..."
expand "Japanese" and check "Microsoft IME"
click "OK" (three times)
Click on the language button, which is normally near the taskbar
choose "Japanese" (note that this changes your keyboard layout; if you use a German keyboard, for instance, z and y will switch places)
right-click on the language button and choose "Restore the language bar"
On the language bar, click "Tools", then "Preferences"
Change "Default Input Mode" to "Hirgana"
Click "OK"
(you can minimise the language bar now, if you want to)

use the language bar/button to switch to Japanese or press the Left Alt Key + Shift to cycle through your input languages
(if you use more than two languages, you might want to assign key combinations to jump to specific languages: right-click the language bar/button, choose "Settings…" and go to the "Advanced Key Settings" tab)

type the Japanese text as you would in romaji, paying attention to some special sequences (s. examples below)
after a word, press the space bar to to go through the possible kanji and Enter to accept (you can also do this after typing the whole sentence, moving between the words with the arrow keys)
to convert a word you just typed to katakana, press F7; to convert it back to hiragana, press F6
some examples:
- for たなか type tanaka
- し can be typed as shi or si, つ as tsu or tu
- for ん type nn
  - for こんにちは type konnnichiha (konnichiha would produce こんいちは)
  - for きんようび type kinnyoubi (kinyoubi would produce きにょうび)
- ti will produce ち; for てぃ type texi or teli
  - for パーティー　type pa-texi- or pa-teli-