[anrakushi]

I also agree about learning hiragana and katakana, learning through romaji will only slow down your progress at the end of the day.

learning by yourself, in my mind, is not a good way to go about it when you are just starting out in the language. I really think until about the intermediate level you should be learning within a classroom to get a better grasp of the language. then i think by about mid to high intermediate you can move on to teach yourself more productively.

I don't believe you need a teacher to teach you kanji. Kanji is something I strongly believe can be self taught and time is better spent in the classroom learning pronunciation, grammar, usage and so on. The written scripts can be learnt at home (kana and kanji)

if you insist on learning by yourself, then get some books text books for beginners, one that appeals to your way of learning and also get a good grammar book such as the one released by The Japan Times called A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. they also have an intermediate level one for later in your studies.

use JLPT 4's vocabulary list as a good starting point of words to learn and work your way up through the levels.

seriously though, go get yourself into a classroom, even if it is just a couple hours a week, it is better than nothing.