I'm hesitant to give too much detail for fear of outing myself here, but: In a few, yes (or at least at one point; I'm sure I've dipped in fluency). In others I am less accomplished. I think traditional education has been very successful for me. I'm not going to argue that it's not possible to graduate with a Japanese degree without being able to carry on a conversation -- it is -- but I think a university program is still a very effective way of not only attaining fluency in the language but also some level of erudition as far literature/culture/etc.

I started studying in middle school. I haven't tried the online stuff you're talking about. I'm not sure that they would be just as good.