Starting to study Japaneese... textbook suggestions?

I hear many suggestions for textbooks, but none for the most efficient. There is no substitute for learning a new language in the real environment or with real people. Study the grammar vocabulary online and get on a chat with someone, they are not that hard to find.

If you really want conversational dialogue, the best place to look is subtitled anime! They use colloquialisms and slang that you would be using in your elementary level, and you will get used to the conjugation naturally, instead of having to figure it out procedurally.

I wonder what support we would have for creating a couple threads in which members would speak exclusively in that language or it could be a sounding board for those learning members. There seem to be many Japanese scholars in this thread alone, so anyone interested?

Jam it back in, in the dark.