Oh, I also meant to say... Another good study guide for me was to buy one of those JLPT prep books they have at the bookstore. I got the one that teaches grammar points, which was super-invaluable for my understanding of Japanese. You can find out what things like "to ha ie" and "-zaru wo enai" mean! lol I think the title of my book (without having it in front of me) was something like "Nihongo Nouryoku Shiken Bunpou Taisaku" or something. I bought the 2-kyuu one which had a green cover, but different -kyuu have different-colored covers. I think they kept these in the English-language section of the bookstore, even though they're all in Japanese.

I also got this awesome grammar dictionary that's published by... I think it's the Daily Yomiuri or something. It's definitely some Japanese newspaper company that publishes it... maybe The Japan Times. I forget. Anyway, it's in the English-language section (at least it was in my local bookstore), and there's two volumes -- the first volume has a yellow cover and the second one has a greenish-gray cover and is thicker. You can look up grammar points written in romaji and it explains what they mean in English, with Japanese example sentences that have English translations. That book was really good, and I still use it sometimes to look up grammatical constructions that I forgot!

I also got this awesome book that's out of print now, but it is AWESOME. It's by Gomi Tarou (you know, the guy that writes those children's books like "Everybody Poops"?). It teaches you Japanese onomatopoeic expressions with explanations in both English and Japanese. It also has cartoon drawings to illustrate each expression that are hilarious!! Here, I found it online: http://www.thejapanshop.com/product.php?productid=16457. This looks like a more up-to-date modern version of the one I have (^_^)

Anyway, these books helped me out, so I just thought I would pass on that info in case you might find it useful! (^_^)