what materials did/do you use to learn japanese?

[Nagged]

[Taro Toporific]

I just stumbled across this resource of 1st-hand accounts of taking the Japanese Proficiency Test from Japan Times "KANJI CLINIC" column appearing every third Thursday in the paper. http://www.kanjiclinic.com/index.html

The J.Test: Less of an ordeal and nobody fails
---Japanese Proficiency Test (Nihongo Noryoku Shiken)

[hakuman]

I have recently started using this book: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0300019130/qid=1085234208/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_5/104-0962226-2597530?v=glance&s=books which I learned about after reading this review: http://forums.kawama.tzo.com:1023/cgi-bin/ydforum/ikonboard.pl?s=4232ee5b49b45584df4eba16d0ce4ca3;act=ST;f=4;t=164

I like it. It seems really good to me. I have done about 5 of the kanji chapters (the first 9 chapters are kana only) and it is both really easy to use, with lots of repetition, which is what I need.