What would you recommend?
 

What books would you recommend for learning Japanese at an upper beginner - intermediate level?

This question has been answered a billion times here. Yookoso, Genki, or Minna no Nihongo are the standard university choices, and they're all fine.

It practically doesn't matter what book you get; the biggest factor is how hard you're willing to work. I put in 8+ hours per week of time actually speaking the language starting from the first day I opened the textbook at university.

PS There is a search function. If you have a question, search to see if it's been asked before from now on, OK? Thanks.

After you're done with one of those texts (I'm familiar and Yookoso is what we used—volumes 1 and 2), then branch out into books like Naoko Chino's Japanese Verbs at a Glance and stuff like that. But once you're done with vols. 1-2 of Yookoso, you should start using books that are written in Japanese such as ALC's どんな時どう使う日本語表現文型500. You'll be at JLPT level 2 for sure then, provided you've also been using something like Kanji in Context or Kanji ABC (Tamura) to study kanji at a rate of 10-20 per week, making sure you actually learn them and don't just memorize them for a week and then forget them. You can ensure your retention by using a (free) program like Anki to make flashcards on your computer (Mac, Linux, or Windows).

I intend this to be my magnum opus of "how to learn Japanese."

You know, a lot of people don't like Rosetta Stone, but it helped a lot wif my basic stuff. I can't think of any basic books.

I'm not dumb, I know that. >.>
When I searched all I got was stupid crap about bands.

Anyway, thanks.

>_< Oh yeah, search could help too, thanks for the tips!

JLIST.com Search : hiragana times

Look for Hiragana Times; it's the second on that page. Once you start reading that, you might want to check out some of the manga anthologies they also have there; a few of them have furinaga. Also, towards the bottom of the page, they have some pretty interesting stuff for learning Hiragana, such as a children's workbook, and a Totoro Hiragan Study Board.

They also recommend a book that's half way down the page called Genki. If you have a DS and $60.00, they have a Doraemon "game" that teaches both kana, and a few kanji, as well as a (separate!) Doraemon work book that's further down the page.

As for Hiragana Times, before you subscribe(if you're interested, of coarse!), here's a taste:

Introducing Topics of Japan - Japanese Lesson

For speaking, a lot of people seem pleased with this site:

Learn Japanese - Start to Speak Japanese in Minutes

A couple of days ago, somebody mentioned this:

Tae Kim's Japanese guide to Japanese grammar

Finally, I recommend getting Kanji Starter by Daiki Kusuya; it teaches kanji by showing you mnemonics. I don't know if you should get Kanji PictoGraphix, because the book is from '91, so when I was playing the Japanese demo of Phantasy Star Portable, I actually had to correct some of the kana. :S