Self learning the japanese language?

I learn Japanese through drama, books, podcasts, music, and probably other things that I can't remember^^"

If you're interested, you can take a look at a guide that I wrote, which pretty much covers the basics, http://www.figure.fm/post/en/19334/A+Japanese+Beginner+Guide+and+My+experiences.html

Good luck with your studies :)

Master the basic Hiragana and Katakana first, then go on to learning simple sentence structure and grammar. I learned a bit in high school so that was helpful.

Afterwards there's a lot of self studying that can be done.

I'm currently learning it as well,I use japanesepod101.com, their lessons are pretty good,and they have a few free ones on youtube. I usually listen to their podcasts when i draw, and their videos are great also. So far,I'm just about down with hiragana.I also use the Zkanji for kanji and some homemade flashcards. For practice, i have a few Japanese one piece manga books, so I try reading them.

I'm taking a university degree in the language. Not the cheapest option and it pretty much consumes your life for the duration of the course, but I got a year at a Japanese university out of it and some great teaching, and it's a pretty solid way to learn a language. Having a native speaker instruct you is really great for picking up subtleties though, so classes are useful.

If you're using Firefox there's an extension called Rikaichan that a lot of people use which lets you mouse-over to get the reading and meaning of kanji.

Children's books are better for reading practice than blogs etc. - they may not be on a topic that's as interesting as figures etc. but they're a lot more suited to a beginning language learner.

I read a lot of manga, books and websites in Japanese, and play a lot of Japanese video games. You can't learn Japanese from them, but you can certainly use it to support your learning. Just don't get disheartened if you find that you understand the colloquial structures these things use even after you've got a good handle on basic grammar. There's a lot that isn't covered in standard grammar (but having a good base to work from makes it easier to decipher the more obscure stuff).

I've learned that half the battle is showing up. I read Furigana comics I buy or have as scans on my iPhone, watch a good 2hrs a day of subbed anime (MKV file format is great as you can turn off subs for a raw effect if you want) and also do reps of Kanji using a program called Anki, which is free. I've also gone to college for a few years to study it, but in the end you find a confortable system that suits you and yourlife style.

My primary method is total imersion ie change eveything around you to that language gradually so my iPhone is in Japanese mode, I watch Japanese shows and RL movies, read Managa in Japanse, listen to J-pop / J-rock all the time etc...

Hope this helps you with some ideas.

I've got a few things I use and even one I made.
There's a set of Firefox plugins that you can use I wrote about them on a blog:
http://www.aeon.net.nz/2009/07/learning-kanji-with-firefox/
Then there's Smart.fm that has a lot of free learning programs, and the last one is a Kana flash card gadget for windows 7/vista that I made:
http://www.figure.fm/post/en/13334/Windows+Kana+Gadget.html

I used Smart.fm to study Hiragana and then used the gadget to constantly review flash cards when ever I glance at my desktop.

I'm recently bought a whole set of books for learning japanese. Since I do it in my spare time my studies aren't progressing too fast, but pretty good nevertheless.
Watching anime helps to learn the spoken language and some vocabulary to a certain degree, because there are many easy words and phrases you can find across most anime series ("Onii-chan no baka!" xD).
To me the hardest thing is the written language and the Kanji. I made my own flashcards in Anki (making them yourself helps more than trying to learn other people's cards imo).

I didn't know of Rikaichan yet, thanks for the links! ;)

holy shiet guys i went to work and came back and it's like everyone answered all the questions i had LOLOL

interesting to see how ppl do some learning on their own, it's certainly better to share the materials. And i've got a whole lot of loot from the posts here xD im enriched :P thanks alot people T____T i will certainly try out everything mentioned here and see what suits me best xD

other then the studying in a university part >_< i'd love that though XD

Just a few notes if you're looking to pick up some supplements for your studies.
Grammar：　どんなときどう使う日本語表現文型辞典 (3 different coloured teacups on the cover) This is probably the best book I have used to look up grammar, of course you have the internet but this is easier and quicker to pick up and use. Also it has minimal English but it feels natural to use.
JLPT Study: UNICOM　日本語能力試験　実力アップ　Is a series that I'm trying out now and it seems pretty good, similar to the previous recommendation, it has minimal English but you understand it enough to know what to do.

I learned how to use read the alphabet from playing video games... =w= The iDOLM@STER.

I learned most vocabulary and such that I know from games and anime and the like, though that's probably not the best way to learn it XDD

I have little to no knowledge of grammar, though (sans for saying "I don't understand Japanese" XDD). For most individual studies, it's probably -best- to use a book, but maybe -easier- to use anime or games XDDD

Oh another point is even though everyone loves anime and manga, a normal conversation is nothing like that at all. Unless you're just learning Japanese so you can watch/read untranslated things and not going to use it in a speaking context, I recommend you throw in some dramas into the mix of media.