The Japanese language is truly not that hard. What seems to be hard for me is the vast amounts of Kanji that have to be memorized in order to function within an average day-to-day life in Japan, and the numerous conjugations. It seems that the book most Americans use -- Genki -- does not teach those very well. As soon as you learn the 8 conjugation patterns, you can apply them to different words you would normally use and be on your merry way.

The conjugations actually follow specific patterns.
You can buy a hardcopy of my college professor's book: Japanese Grammar - the Connecting Point by Kimihiko Nomura which explains these ideas in great detail.

ALSO, Duolingo is developing a Japanese program (currently available on iOS) and Memrise has some basic, basic lessons in the language.