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Hi.

I used a lot of different material. Textbooks like the Genki series at first, then the Intermediate level text books from the same company afterwards. I also remember using an electronic dictionary by Casio, as well as Essential Kanji by P.G. O'Neill. I want to stress however, that reference material like kanji dictionaries alone will not really be sufficient – you need something else that really drives you towards learning, and I certainly had that.

I was very into Japanese music (garage rock and psychedelic music) and have an embarrassingly large collection of albums that I started collecting at young age. I would listen to lyrics, read liner notes, and perhaps most importantly read magazines about music.

I'm convinced I would never have been able to muster the dedication required to learn all the kanji if it had not been for my passion for music. This is because learning a widely different language is a daunting task. Fluency is not something a person will reach without truly dedicating themselves in a way that works for them.

So I can suggest combining a dedicated mindset towards studying with your interest for Japanese media of any kind, if you have that. I have known people who are into manga and anime (a world I know next to nothing about) and see it solely as entertainment, but very few of those people ever got serious about actually investing themselves in learning. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, as we all have different goals in life.

Anyway, to sum it up a text book like Genki (through which you make regular progress) and a good kanji dictionary such as the one by O'Neill are a good foundation. But in the long run, it is more important to have something that lets you really use what you have learned. For me, that was my passion for music and everything related to it.

As I wrote in another reply, I had never actually spoken to a Japanese person before moving here, but I had been studying so much that I had been able to pass the most difficult JLPT and was comfortable reading and writing. Actually talking in Japanese is something I had to start from scratch after coming here.

Feel free to ask more questions if you'd like – I'd love to be of help.

"Look Homeward Angel" by Tom Wolfe is pretty good, as is anything by Gurney Norman; Jessie Stuart is a poet, and some of his work tends towards the sentimental. "Plundering Appalachia" is a multi-authored work on the problem of mining and how it affects people there; I highly recommend that. I also recommend this one as well: http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/1607741873 Its the book on White Trash cooking, and actually has some decent recipes.

Hah, you have a lot of 'us' down pat. For further amusing reading, I highly recommend "The Undutchables" and "The Dutch, I presume?" but I'm sure they have been recommended to you by now. ;)

How are things these days? I'm planning on someday driving down to Costa Rica (from the US) and would pass through Nicaragua, would you say it is relatively safe to drive through? I read Road Fever not too long ago and Nicaragua was the one country they were most worried about making it through but that was quite a while ago.

Have you ever read "Zodiac" by Neal Stephenson? Is it really polluted up there?