I have bought a Onkyo Wavio SE-U55X which is a sort of pre-amplifier or external sound card that plugs into a USB port (perhaps like the Sanyo one that Don recommended) which I got for 1.38 Man ( 13800 Yen about 120 dollars) at Yodobashi Kamera in Hakata. I like it. It comes with software which for reasons below I do not recommend. There is a cheaper versoin without the software which would be worth considering.
I also bought a Sony Microphone Mixer Mx-50 so that I can record from two microphones rather than just the one. I probably could have saved myself most of the 7000 yen that it cost by purchasing a splitter (i only need mono from the microphones anyway) but I liked the idea of having my own "studio."
So now I can record fine. This is me and my dog.
The problem that I have is that the "Carry on Music" software that comes with the Onkyo external sond card / preamplifier does not come with the abilty to edit out portions of the sound. At least as far as I am aware. It has a nice display of the sound wave. So I can identify portions that I would like to edit out but I can see no button for "cut this portion" or "save this portion" or "copy this portion" or "paste portion"
My request is now, does anyone know where I can get a good bit of sound editing software, for a reasonable price, ideally Japanese language capable.