Hi, I know that Spanish will be important for me in my future career(law) and I also have an interest in learning it. At the same time I have an interest in Japanese and would like to learn it for fun. I have room in my schedule for the coming fall quarter to take both. Would it be ok to take both at the same time since they are both very different?

If you have time, why not?

You need to prioritize. Learning Spanish would probably be more important. It'll also be easier to start because of all the borrowed words in English.

In Japanese, there are lots of borrowed words from Chinese. The 3 types of writing system would take some time to get used to. As you say, you're only learning it for fun so you don't have to worry so much about it.

I don't oppose to people who learn different languages in the same time, because that's what I've been doing. I'd suggest not starting them at the same time. You may start one language for a few months until you're comfortable with the language pattern before you start another one. This way, it'll be less energy draining.

If you're like me, who learn Japanese to read manga. It automatically murder vast majority of my free time. (lol)

Good luck and have fun. :D

wow email me i'm doing the same thing! (Spanish in school, Japanese by myself) They have very different grammar systems so the difference will help you to not confuse them. But some things i've found are exactly the same (when you study kore/sore/are in Japanese and éste/ése/aquél you'll go like WOAH)

A good thing is that they are pronounced similarly. rolling your spanish Rs will really help you with the japanese Rs, which can be tricky. Also, the vowels are pretty much the same.
The only thing is that sometimes i mix up words. Some Japanese words sound like that could be Spanish words!

Yes, Japanese has non-existent paradigms conerning grammatical gender, while Spanish does.

They're very different but that will be your strength. You won't get as confused concerning grammar etc.

In some UK schools some students learn Mandarin along side with French or German, and they end up excelling in both.

It would be helpful to know that Japanese and Spanish share similar pronunciation (that is, ALL vowels are long, and they don't have the annoying feature of English where if you put two different vowels side by side, they get pronounced differently).
What's tough about Japanese:
*three different alphabet systems are used
*there are over dozens of ways to say "you"
*many words sound identical, but have a different meaning
What's easy about Japanese:
*easy pronunciation
*nouns have no gender
*there are no plurals

What's tough about Spanish:
*complicated verb tenses (wait til you start learning conditional and preterite verb forms woo hoo!!)
*pronouncing the "R" requires practice
*nouns have a gender (LA mujer, EL hombre)
What's easy about Spanish:
*pronunciation (except R)
*it's pretty much spoken the same everywhere (unlike German, Chinese, or Arabic)

It's not a problem. For a couple of years I had a tutor in Japanese and I also took a class of Spanish and I never confused them.

why not?

Unless you were a Henry Schliemann ( he discovered the ruins of the city of Troy and spoke 18 languages ) or someone similar ( like, I think the name was José Mezzofanti, who spoke approximately 50 languages. Called the Living Pentecost because he could speak any pilgrim's language ) , you would go crazy

Domo arigato xymass
Gracias

if you think you will have time for your homework too,

sure, go for it!

I think taking two at the same time will make you a more efficient learner.

Why not? I do them as well, aswell as Latin and French! I have loads of languages and its probably best that spanish and japanese are so different because you might get confused otherwise!