I'm sorry if someone has already mentioned this, but since I only had the patience to read the first five pages or so of this thread, I hope you'll forgive me.
I just wanted to remind anyone who is trying to learn Japanese that learning it directly from anime (as was suggested a few times) and only in that way would not be a really great idea for those who actually wish to go to the country at any point and seriously converse. Most of the phrasing in anime is terribly impolite, and I hate to admit that I made the mistake of trying this tactic when I took my college Japanese courses.
Needless to say, my attempts at communicating with my teacher as a result of this training ended disastrously and left her very much offended. Luckily, that made her redouble her efforts to make sure that we, as a class, learned all of the different levels of communication that went with levels of respect. So just to repeat my point, please use another learning tool besides anime, and try to only use anime to keep the language fresh in your mind once you have gained a reputable knowledge of the proper grammar and vocab.
Personally, I used the Nakama texts, as my teacher was fairly old-fashioned. If anyone has a Nintendo DS, the "My Japanese Coach" software is pretty good. It starts you off with romaji (which I never learned, but apparently is easier to start with to some people who are afraid of kana right away), and then works in kana and even some kanji later. I thought it was great, since it employed games, and had reading, writing, AND speaking involved in it.
I mean no disrespect to people who haven't had the chance to learn Japanese via the classroom, and have therefore taught themselves through anime and whatnot... I just wanted to make sure that those who wished to use it for travel purposes and things like that didn't end up embarrassing themselves by running up to random Japanese people and spouting incredibly disrespectful phrases.
