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Check out these links to get started. I was going to post all of the links, but it's probably better for you to have a look at where I first got these links from, since I haven't taught myself Japanese.

Polykarbon Thread

Polykarbon Tutorials (look under Japanese Lessons)

a good program is that rosetta stone thing...but its REAL expensive
*yay! got it for christmas*...but it dosent give you direct translations, which could be a problem when it comes to more complex sentences...

so...

a good book would have to be this...i forget...o! japanese phrases for dummies...i think thats it...but yeah its one of thoes for dummies books...but its really good like it gives you so good phrases to use and grammar lessons which rosetta stone dosent have.

like:
watashi wa anata ga suki desu

watashi: I wa: *word used to point out the person doing the action* anata: you ga: *word used to showthe person reciving the action* suki: love desu: i forget...-.-;

but if you want sumthing quick, that genki japan thing has random phrases and number games and stuff.... along with good programs and stuff for serious japanese

...that was a long comment...hope it helped^^

Hmm. I've been trying to teach myself Japanese for quite a while now, and I've tried the Rosetta Stone Japanese Program. My mother bought a year's subscription for me (around three hundred odd dollars) and I'll have to be honest with you... It was probably one of the worst programs I've personally used.

I just couldn't learn anything from it. I suppose I can't really judge much on the entire quality of the program, as I decided to give up on it after the first few lessons when I learned nothing from it ( other than the word kuruma, car xD; ). But, really, I'd say it's not the best tool for everyone to use, especially if you want to learn more than just some vocabulary... I'd maybe try it out on the short term and, if it works for you, subscribe to the full service or whatever you can afford. Like Short-atte mentioned, it is very expensive and not something you want to immediately assume will work wonders for you, because it may not be for you personally.

But... Hm... I know of a few websites that are good for learning to improve your Japanese. Some are to help with memorization of Kanji/Katakana/Hiragana, some are vocabulary, and some are grammar. So, let's see...

RealKana is a very good website for memorizing your Hiragana / Katakana / Kanji characters. You basically select which character set you want to practice (Kanji/Katakana/Hiragana), then you select which characters to practice (i.e., vowel line, k- line, s- line, etc.), and what fonts you want the generator to show the characters to you in. The generator will then show you a character, and you'll have to type out the romanization of it and hit enter. If you get it right, you go onto the next character, but if you don't, you can always look it up and then correct yourself. Example would be, the generator shows you the character "ち” and you would type in the romanization "Chi", hit enter, and it'll take you to the next character. I say it's very effective.

Japanese Online is also a good site which I use from time to time. It has free lessons you can read over, with little mini-quizzes you do at the end, and it has a little vocab and a little grammar and such all at the same time. Of course, it's not the end-all-be-all of free online Japanese lessons, but it's something, right?

I know this website isn't very Japanese related, either, but I still find it a very helpful tool if used in conjunction with other sites. Flash Card Machine is a place for you to register an account and make your own flashcards, which can be VERY helpful in memorizing your Japanese characters, vocabulary, or even grammatical tidbits, like functions of particles like "Wa", "O/Wo", "Ka", and etc. There are also a few flashcard sets people have made available for public use on the site, for various levels of Japanese. However, I can't say I would really reccommend looking through those and the like, as they are indeed user-made cards and not always 100% correct. In fact, I found quite a few mistakes in some of them.

Oh.. and I feel I should issue you a warning about online instant-translation services and online Japanese-English dictionaries, such as Free Dict and Babelfish. A lot of the time, the words they give you in Japanese only somewhat mean the english word it gave, thus making your sentences seem really idiotic. Even besides that, Free Dict doesn't even tell you what grammatical function the word serves, i.e. 'verb', 'noun', 'adjective', or etc, which is also extremely important when you're going for correctness.

That's all I have for now, though if you feel like PMing me, I could probably find a ton more resources. I know I've used a lot more, but I feel like I've already wrote like, a freaking novel.

Oh, and I know you said you were looking for web-based resources, but mind if I suggest some literature which has really helped me out a lot?

Like Short-atte suggested, the "Japanese for Dummies" book is actually a decent read for beginners. I bought this for myself a long time ago and made it through the first few lessons and actually learned a lot, vocabulary, grammar, and culture-wise. Unfortunately, I lost it... But, anyway, I believe it also comes with a CD still that narrarates the conversations in lessons and translates them, which can be helpful if you're struggling with pronunciation or a more 'Japanesey' accent when you speak aloud.

Another book, "Japanese Grammar, Second Edition" by Carol and Nobuo Akiyama is also very useful. It's also very small, making it easy to take along with you to study whenever you have some downtime (I actually carry it in my purse 24/7). It's got a lot of grammar in it, like the title entails, but also has quite a bit of vocab and useful phrases/idioms packed in as well.

Oh... and I have another book that I wanted to recommend, because it was single-handedly the best learning tool I've ever personally used... It's also not very expensive--only about $25-27. But, sadly, I left it in my locker at school over spring break and I can't recall the title or author. If you PM me next week, I could probably give you the title and author's name, if you want to check it out.

But, anyway, I hope this helps you, because it sure as heck took me forever to type up. @@;; Good luck with your Japanese study!　頑張って！

Note:



^^; Actually, I think your grammar's a bit off. Maybe. I'm not exactly fluent myself, but I've been looking a lot at particles and verbs lately~

"Watashi wa anata ga suki desu", I believe, wouldn't translate right... It'd be the equivalent of... I (some verb unstated here) you are love. This is because 'desu' is generally translated as 'to be'. If you wanted to say "I love you", which is what I believe you were trying to communicate, you would say...

私　わ　あなた　が*　愛　する。
Watashi wa anata ga* ai suru.

* I'm not exactly sure if 'ga' or 'o' would be appropriate here, actually. I'm not that good with particles yet. ^^;;

Watashi = I
Wa = Particle marking the subject.
Anata = You.
Ga = Particle marking the recipient of an unobservable action like love.
Ai Suru = Verb which means 'to have a love / affection for'

Though I'm not entirely, 100% sure on that... Like I said, I'm far from fluent, but I believe that I corrected it to the best of my ability. xD;; If I'm wrong, though, please correct me so that I can learn from my mistakes~

i could teach a little, but i'm not the best