For those of you wanting to do some Japanese self study I would recommend a set of 2 books put out by the Japan Times one of Japans leading English language newspapers called Genki, they are set up well in my opinion and are in good English, they also have writing lessons as well as reading and as the lessons progress kanji from your writing lessons are slowly included. In addition its also widely used by many Japanese language teaching schools in Japan. Please note I do not work for them nor do I make anything from mentioning this.
link,
Genki Online