The diagram at

http://www.iaehv.nl/users/pouweha/lcd_examp.htm

for driving a Hitachi LCD using 3 port pins (and a shift
register) is pretty clever; one slight simplification and
enhancement would be to use the D wire (which feeds the
shift register) for the RS function rather than the clock.
Since the D input is ignored by the shifter except when it
is clocked, this should allow the elimination of the RC
delay that was used for sharing the clock signal.

Also, while I don't generally like it too much for most
applications, the 74HC164 serial->parallel converter will
work fine here and, for the benefit of U.S. readers, is
available at Radio Shack.  Since the LCD ignores what's
on its data wires when it's not enabled, the propagation
of the data bits through the output bits shouldn't be a
problem.