These are my recommendations based on the books I am using and the Japanese language school I will be attending for 3months this year!
Books
Culture
Everyday Japanese - Schwarz/Ezwa. This book also contains words and phrases presented in romanji that may be useful for the traveller. Contains drawings and black and white photos to illustrate.
Culture Smart, Japan. A quick guide to etiquette and customs. Does what it says - quick guide!
Speaking
Oxford - Take off in Japanese. Coursebook and 4 audio CDs to hear native speakers, it's quite heavy going and there's very little kana presented, but it's good to hear spoken Japanese. Cons - pausing the CD is haphazard, it will skip ahead and you will be swearing and irate! The coursebook is also small, and I've been writing in it in pencil and there's not much space. Suggest you buy a notebook! All answers, if not on the CDs are in the Back of the book, along with: glossary of gramatical terms; A-Z of vocabulary; grammar summary. Has a running story of people who frequent a bar, introduces conversation - works well, also has a transcript so you can work it out and a list of words to help.
Writing
Remembering the Kana - James W. Heisig. Aims to help you remember the kana, first hiragana and then katakana in 3hours each. The hiragana is very well covered but the book lets itself down later when it deviates from the method and therefore several katakana are made much harder to learn.
Remembering the Kanji 1 - James W. Heisig. Teaches the meaning and writing of the kanji but not the pronunciation, meaning if you manage to remember it all you'll be in the same position as Koreans or Chinese learning Japanese. There is a second volume which will teach you the pronunciation (but it is much more expensive than this first volume.
Websites
The Kanji site useful for kana aswell, has all the kana and some kanji arranged nicely.
The Kana site someone's personal site, some spelling mistakes but there's a lot on there that you might find useful.
Kanji game, yeah so I can't read many kanji yet but this might be useful if you can!