ok you know what, i fixed the problem i was having (not seeing the right keys), it was simply because i hadn't manually installed the japanese keyboard.
this is a standard japanese keyboard, but now i am having the hardest time to figure out how to get to some characters-- some keys have FOUR characters, to which i can only use two (normal and shift+key... how do i get to the other two? i've tried alt, ctrl, everything...)
thanks!
ps: oh and crap, i found that my caps lock no longer works!! what is the deal with that?