Thanks a lot for all the suggestions on J-Dramas. I am going to start with Densha Otoko first, and maybe GTO or Joou no Kyousitsu after finishing that.
On self-learning, I think it is a good idea to attend some basic courses first before getting into that. Because if you have some of the most fundamental concepts wrong, you will have a hard time when you proceed to the intermediate level. Not to mention that it would be very difficult to correct them by that time. For softwares, I really have no idea if there is any decent one out there. But if you want to brush up your pronounciation, a text book set with CDs included can work as well (still nothing can beat learning from a native speaker in class).
I can't really get why there are so many English textbooks on Japanese use romaji instead of hiragana. Frankly romanji is something that is, at most, only useful for your first week of study, and should be thrown away immediately after that. Language is not only about speaking and listening, but also writing and reading. These four components go hand-in-hand with each other. You are only trapping yourself if you try to neglect any of them.
In our city, the basic alphabets are taught in the very first lesson of any language course, and you are required to memorize all of them in 1-2 weeks. Anyone failing to do so probably have to leave and take another language. And of course you can never find one single textbook using romanization as shortcuts for impatient learners.