Switching from Direct Input (A) to Hiragana (あ) modes.

[ggenglish]

I find it really annoying when I switch from EN to JP mode with my nice <ALT> + <SHIFT> hot key that the input mode is always (A) Direct Input by default. I have looked in the properties "Japanese Input System (MS-IME2002)" and there seems to be a lot of settings but the ones I have tried haven't changed anything. Can someone help me either:

Make "あ　Hiragana" the default or locked input method.
-or-
Make tell me how to switch input modes without needing to use the mouse. (i.e. keyboard shorcuts only)

The key idea being i don't want to take my hand away from the keyboard to use the mouse just to get japanese input going. Any solution with keyboard shortcuts is fine with me.

Thanks in advance for your help. I hope I'm clear with my problem and I'm just overlooking an easy solution.

[jaredh]

On windows vista (may be the same on others)
alt + shift

to change to Japanese mode then use

alt + ~

To switch between hiragana and half-width alphanumeric

I do not know how to change to the other modes without using the mouse

[Jessi]

Jaredh is right, alt+~ will switch you to Japanese mode.

I wish it were just as easy to switch between the different modes as it is on a Japanese keyboard, though. Only one button switches you directly from EN to JP. So easy

[ggenglish]

hurray! <alt>+~

ありがとうございます。

[radulfr]

I did some testing with different key combinations and found these:
Alt + ~ toggles between Direct Input and the previously used method
Ctrl + Caps Lock turn on Hiragana
Alt + Caps Lock turns on Katakana
Shift + Caps Lock turns Half-width mode on or off (selects Half-width Alphanumeric, can be changed to Half-width Katakana with Alt + Caps Lock)
Ctrl + Shift + Caps Lock turns Kana mode on or off

Thank you, ggenglish and jaredh, for pointing this out. I would have never found these otherwise. ありがとうございました。