You cannot (CANNOT) seriously and efficiently learn Japanese kanji (and therefore learn to read Japanese) if you have not learned (and to a certain extent mastered) hiragana and katakana first. Yes, many kanji books and flashcard sets written commercially available give kanji readings in romaji (Latin characters), but this is only a marketing issue that pushes them to do so. It takes a few weeks to learn hiragana and katakana, take the time to learn them!

The most difficult kanji to learn are not the complicated ones that are rarely seen, but the first ones you learn (the first 80 kanji of Grade 1, usually simple in shape), and which are seen all the time. There are two reasons for this. First, when kanji are new to you, the memory exercise it requires is also new. After a while, that exercise will become a routine. Second, the first kanji we learn have tons of readings and meanings. Our brain can cope with one or two readings and one or two meanings for a single character, but not with more than 10 readings and several meanings per character. For instance simple kanji such as (top), (bottom) or (life) are extremely difficult to remember because of their numerous readings and meanings, while the kanji (to defend) may look complicated, but it has only one reading (), and only one meaning (to defend).

Aside from a good teacher and/or a good book, the only way to remember and keep remembering kanji is by using flashcards (two-sided paper cards, presenting the kanji on one side and its readings and meanings on the other). If you start early on with flashcards, I guarantee that your learning speed will be far greater than others, and that you will remember the characters you have learned earlier.

It is important to place emphasis on writing kanji properly, using the correct stroke order and producing characters that "look good". The stroke order is particularly important as you will never produce beautiful kanji with the wrong stroke order (not to mention that automatic hand writing recognition devices will never get your writing even if you make one mistake in the stroke order).

Kanji (and the Japanese language in general) is not just another alphabet or another language. It is also a state of mind, and a mirror of the culture and mindset of the Japanese. It will require a basic understanding of Japanese culture (kanji will also help explain it as well). I never understood why curiosity () is not traditionally considered a quality in Japan (unlike in western societies) until I learned that in a Japanese mind, curiosity refers to the inner attitude () of liking () what is odd ().