NHK offers a free Japanese class online. Available in 17 different languages, it covers basic conversational skills. The course follows Leo's trip to Japan, where he plans to study Aikido. Like a good traveler, he drops his passport at the airport upon arrival. Luckily, Mika notices and returns it to him. The storyline is designed to teach 100 useful phrases in Japanese. I find that almost all of them are actually useful as they appear, and a good selection of them are useful for grammar comparisons. I made flash cards of each of the key phrases so I can study on the go.A couple of nice features include a downloadable .pdf of the entire series, along with "Fun With Japanese" onomatopoeia lessons and seasonal haiku. All of the kanji in the .pdf include furigana, so even beginners like me can read the entire lesson in Japanese. On each individual lesson page, everything is written out in Japanese, romaji and English (or other language selected). If you scroll down and click "learn more," you can view a very short video of presumably-native-speakers saying the key phrase so you can hear the common pronunciations. You can listen to the lessons via satellite or download mp3s, too.
This course won't teach much more than basic conversation, but it's a good tool for beginners.
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