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I just wanted to share with yall the books I use to learn/refresh my Japanese. After two years in a Japanese university and (literally) about 500 dollars spent on reference materials, there are in my opinion the best.

First for the beginners:
Let's Learn Hiragana
Let's Learn Katakana

from Kodansha. Easily accessible in the States. Shouldn't take much time to go through (My university makes beginners learn Hiragana in A DAY confused )

From here:
Kanji in Context Workbook I
Kanji in Context Workbook II
Kanji in Context Reference Book

from The Japanese Times. THE best kanji books. Like their introduction says, many kanji books only take you half way and just stop. This has all the Joyo Kanji. The Japanese returnee students at my school use this series to polish off their kanji. The fact of the matter is there is no 'simple' way to learn kanji (as much as you may love them like me razz ), and you basically just have to remember their form and meaning. This series' organization makes this a lot more painless.

From here its a little tricky. The series of grammar books I use, despite teaching sentence pattern basics, assumes an elementary knowledge of conjugation. I got my start teaching myself with many of Kodansha's "Handbook of 〜" and "〜 at a Glance" (insert: verbs, adjective, what have you), but then I took a year at University and basically relearned it. Once you have done this (Either through self study with Kodansha books or an introductory class), I highly recommend this series:

どんな時どう使う 日本語表現文型200
donna toki dou tsukau nihongo hyougen bunkei 200
どんな時どう使う 日本語表現文型500
donna toki dou tsukau nihongo hyougen bunkei 500
どんな時どう使う日本語表現文型500短文完成練習帳
donna toki dou tsukau nihongo hyougen bunkei 500 tanbun kansei renshuu chou
どんな時どう使う 日本語表現文型辞典
donna toki dou tsukau nihongo hyougen bunkei jiten

from ALC (アルク）

First introduced to the later half of this series (500) in my advanced Japanese class. For me its like the Kanji in Context of Japanese Grammar.

I just wanted to share this with yall. I'm using this for my study regime and I feel more than prepared to tackle the JLPT 1 in December smile

I was soo tempted to start Remembering the Kanji but it looked intimidating and I was a little if-y about how you learn them. But please let us know how it goes! It can only make you better at Japanese smile

The "Context" part of Kanji in Context makes all the difference to me! Even in lesson one when you learn the most basic Kanji, the compounds and how they are used are excellent! I think the books I used as a freshman in the states taught Kanji in an over simplified manner.