Starting to study Japaneese... textbook suggestions?

You say you know nothing. I very, VERY strongly reccomend that you do some reseach before you start putting the money down to study. Learning Japanese entails a lot, being so different from English (which I'm assuming is your native language).

Do you want to learn enough to make you way around as a tourist? Do you not care about the written aspect of the language? Are you aiming for complete fluency?

I wouldn't reccomend Japanese for Busy People for a person who's aiming for fluency; it wasn't made for that. Get an idea of what your capibilities and what you'd like to accomplish, then make your game plan.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I struggled with kana with a while, but I downloaded this program (see attachment) in like the eighth grade and never had trouble with 'em again. Do this a few minutes a day, write 'em in your spare time.

The extra "push" of a structured class cannot be overestimated. If you can find a class to attend, then by all means, do so.

Most amazing jew boots

We use Genki in my class, and I don't really have any complaints on it (except, as someone mentioned, the randomness of the vocabulary lists). Maybe part of this is because I was pretty familiar with Japanese when I started taking the class, and most of the stuff in the first book was review.

There was this one thing my teacher went over in class the other day, which I thought was funny. He's a native, and commented on how feminine a lot of the speech was in the examples (when it wasn't stated that "this is a female speech pattern). Three of the four authors are women, so I guess a lot female influence (intentionally or not), found its way into the book.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.