Well, this is interesting. I rewired and started it up again. Then I got 13 characters -- all Japanese -- on the first line. L's and O's were repeated where they should be. Seemed like progress, however, i haven't been able to get anything since. Now when i apply power (via USB) the first character is lit like a block cursor and nothing else. Pressing reset blanks the LCD and nothing returns. I followed Bob's advice and shifted the LCD down the breadboard but same results. Even tried another breadboard and same results.
What do you think of this?