I actually started using nothing but books from borders and cd's, rhe CD's were mostly to get the sound of native speakers. I kept a slew of japanese songs both rock and rap. I found that if you listen to the language every day atleast for a little while then the language begins to slow down and you can pick out words. I also watched japanese tv shows(fuji san kei TV if available in your area).
It didnt matter what the show was I would sit witha note pad and a dictionary and jot down words and try to put them in sentences after looking up the meanings. I was fortunate enough to find a few people I call friends (Thanks Gen And Yohei and Kenji)that live in Japan with whom I speak with on Skype.(that's hard though because I live in the US and the time dif is killer
)But I found that rosetta stone works VERY wellalso because it shows you words and pictures and it's easy to use.