>>2584378TLDR at bottom
-Memorized hiragana (two weeks later, katakana)
-Made my own physical flash cards for vocab and grammar (this helped with retention and reading).
-I didn’t study kanji separately at first, I memorized kanji readings from vocab.
-started reading manga and light novels almost immediately. It didn’t matter if I understood it or not. The point was to improve my reading.
-followed genki i workbook with Tokini Andy on YT (didn’t bother with genki ii but still watched the videos).
-listened to vocab on JP Launch on YT almost daily
-picked up Kodansha Kanji Learner's Course, i found it much much better then heisig’s RTK. I hated RTK. Kodansha’s not only has mnemonics, is also has the most common readings and it lists them in the most common order. It also gives vocab based on kanji that were already previously listed before that kanji. So you can see the other kanji in action. Highly recommend.
-listened to Japanese music. Finding stuff I liked while also being able to listen to the words was tricky. I love Ichiko Aoba. Her voice is so melodic and you can hear the words very well. It’s poetic and she uses a lot of keigo in the songs but it’s still good listening practice. Listened to some pop, rap/hip hop(good for slang and less textbook talk), etc.
-started to watch Japanese shows like terrace house. Disney+ has a ton of stuff that has Japanese dub and subtitles. I found this useful as well. Jp subtitles are useful when you’re mining for words but in the beginning you won’t be able to read them fast enough.
I’m sure I missed some things. You really never stop studying either. It’s basically a huge commitment if you want to maintain it. Once you figure out how to study in a way that works for you, it really takes off. I’m not great at speaking it but if I needed to I could. My focus was just on reading because I like manga and I love Japanese folklore.
TLDR; start reading as soon as you have hiragana down.