Here's a small collection of links to resources I've found useful for practising to read and speak Japanese:

Books:
Genki 1: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1
by Eri Banno, Yutaka Ohno, Yoko Sakane & Chikako Shinagawa.
Remembering the Kana: Hiragana & Katakana
by James W. Heisig.
Learning Japanese Hiragana and Katakana: Workbook and Practice Sheets
by Kenneth G. Henshall & Tetsuo Takagaki.

Audio tapes:
Pimsleur Approach

Software:
Mnemosyne

Web:
japanese.about.com

I recently watched a videoclip by a guy called Gimmeaflakeman where he describe the use of, and link to, a very useful plugin for Firefox called Rikaichan. Along with a dictionary (also found on that site) you can hover Kanji or Hiragana/Katakana and it will translate the words in a popup. Either watch the video or go to their site for a preview. Really nifty plugin. :-]

Just finished writing down the material from lesson 6. Here's some of what's been covered so far:

x はどこですか。
x wa doko desu ka? - Where is x?

ここですか。
koko desu ka? - Is it here?

あそこですか。
Asoko desu ka? - Is it over there?

ここじゃありません。
Koko ja arimasen. - It's not here.

あそこじゃありません。
Asoko ja arimasen. - It's not over there.

なにかたべますか。
Nanika tabemasu ka? - Would you like something to eat?

なにかぬみますか。
Nanika numimasu ka? - Would you like something to drink?

いいえけっこです。
Iie kekko desu. - No thank you.

どこでたべますか。
Doko de tabemasu ka? - Where would you like to eat?

わたしのところで。
Watashi no tokoro de? - At my place?

あなたのところで。
Anata no tokoro de? - At your place?

わたしのところでなにかのみませんか。
Watashi no tokoro de nanika nomimasen ka? - Would you like something to drink at my place?

I'm slowly going back to where I begun this journey. I'm feeling confident enough to write hiragana and am now, once again, listening to the Pimsleur's Japanese-"tapes", writing along as the lessons go. I finished lesson 2 earlier today and here's some of what I've written thus far:

すみません、えいごがわかりますか。
Sumimasen, eigoga wakarimasu ka? - Excuse me, do you speak English?

にほんごがすこしわかります。
Nihongoga sukoshi wakarimasu. - I know a little Japanese.

おはようございます。
Ohayou gozaimasu. - Good morning!

ありがとうございます。
Ariagatou gozaimasu. - Thank you!

いいおてんきですね。
Ii otenki desu ne? - It's nice weather, don't you think?

Of course, I write by hand, so it won't look as pretty as this. ;-] But it's good fun, and a good practice. :-]

The last line, about the weather, fits really well with where we are right now so I used it for the title. Spring (practically bordering summer) is a pretty nice season and for the last few days we've had really warm weather. いいおてんきですね。:-]

So I kind of got it all down now, I can kiiiinda read hiragana and katakana, albeit really really slow, and I still stumble a bit upon some of the characters. Especially the dakuten and handakuten. But it's getting there.

Now, I've taken on the task to properly learn to write them. Like, for instance, if I see this せ, I know it's 'se', but if I am to write it from memory, I'll have to stop and think, hard. But I'm working on that and hopefully, in a near future, I'll be writing a few posts in Japanese.

Some while back I found a site where yould submit what you've written (in whatever language) and native speaking users could correct you or make suggestions. I've lost the site, sadly, but that could've come in handy. :-]

Ok so my previous attempts at learning the hiragana table has been a bit, hm, futile. Sure I learned a few, but sitting there writing them to no end kinda got me nowhere.

The other day my friend introduced me to something new (I swear, he's the one that throws all the good stuff at me!) -- a book called Remembering the Kana: Hiragana and Katakana by James W. Heisig. There's six or so lessons that skip back and forth through the book (menaing you don't learn them "in order").The first lesson starts of smoothly with 9 syllables.

I started practicing today, and I've nailed the 9 so far. (Yeah it's not all that hard yet). Apparently you can go through the course in ~3 hours and pick up all of the hiragana table, but I decided against moving too fast now that I found a method that actually does work really well.

And here's the beautiful part: With the help of Mnemosyne (also suggested by the same friend - I love you man, haha!) I can test myself and see what syllables I know and which I need to practice further; the program remembers your answers and asks for the ones you don't know very well more often than the ones you do know. Very nifty program indeed!

Finally getting somewhere. :)

Towards the end of July of this year I preordered a book from Amazon with a delivery estimate of today (Dec 4th). The book is Jimi's Workbook of Japanese: A Motivating Method to Learn Japanese - I figured I'd buy a "children's book" to help me with learning Japanese.

Now, the other day I received a mail from Amazon which read "Dear Customer, We're still trying to obtain the following item[s] you ordered [...]"

Wtf? Wasn't the book just due for release, how can you have run out already? And shouldn't I have had a pretty good shot at getting one, as I ordered it quite a while ago?

Sucks a bit, because my Japanese "lessons" have somewhat halted, and I was looking forward to this book being a sort of "kick off" to start studying again. :(

While there aren't all that much to keep track of (ok, so there is, but so far I'm only working on full hours) it's a bit of a pain to remember how to tell time in Japanese.

Most of the pain comes from not memorizing the numbers 1 through 10 in a good way. Yesterday my brothers girlfriend mentioned making a memory-game out of stuff you're trying to memorize, so that's what I'll do.

I also found a little game that not only test your knowledge in hours, but also your hearing -- some of what they say is a little hard to hear, at least for me. It's a bit childish looking (quite a lot so, in fact) but gets the job done. :-]