How do I learned Japanese

My university doesn't offer this language, and I don't want to wait until graduate school to learn it under the assumption both that I will go to graduate school and that they will offer it where I choose to go.

I'm just curious, are there any good self-study programs I could work on for a year that would allow me to be the equal of someone who studied the language for one year in high school?

Ironically, there is a study abroad program in Japan which requires some experience with the language (using the example I used above as its own example of how much) even though they do not offer classes in it.

Thanks, everyone. I didn't really seriously expect to receive constructive answers by this point, but I guess Anonymous does deliver sometimes.

>>2, thanks for the site, it seems like a great resource, although it's annoying how the writer uses kanji expecting you to look them up, which seems inefficient when he could just put up the furigana and put the meaning in parentheses or something the first time he uses them.

As to >>6, I actually have grabbed a 10GB pack of Japanese learning junk and downloaded the book from NR, as well as installing rikaichan.

I'm kind of creeping myself out in going this far to just participate in a program for one year that isn't even relevant to my major, but hey, I've got to soothe my inner weeaboo sometime and I might as well before I'm tied down with a serious job.