How exactly should I go about learning Japanese & Kanji?

For the longest time I've wanted to learn Japanese and recently I've actually taken action, but I've been hitting the same dead end over. That is, how you should go about learning Japanese.I have seen people say "Learn the grammar then the Kanji!" and others say "Learn a lot of words & grammar before you even start writing!" but the most confusing was "Just learn it all together" without any stepping stones.

Secondly, on the topic of just leanring Kanji, I've been told many different paths for that also. Some say to learn all the radicals and that stroke count doesn't matter, others say to learn the Japanese radicals before the Kanji. People say to start with the most basic Kanji (Stroke count-wise) then work your way up sense you can already understand more complicated meanings, while others say to learn the most basic Kanji (Meaning-wise) since that's how Japanese kids do it. I just need a path to stick to, and none are really explained, they're just there.

By the way: Already learned most of the radicals with their English names and all of the kana.

In the course of all this searching for advice...has no one suggested getting a proper professionally prepared textbook?

A similar thread was posted in this forum not long ago: [ASK] The Proper Routes To Learn Japanese | Japan Forum
You may find your answers there.

Concerning kanji learning order (and learning the language in general), don't focus too much on "that's how they learn it in school in Japan". Grown-up foreigners learn differently from native children. Personally I tried both orders, but only "visually simple to visually complex" worked for me.

Who in their right mind says stroke order doesn't matter?? I REALLY want to know so that I can ignore these people forever. I recommend you do the same.

chingwa said:

Who in their right mind says stroke order doesn't matter?? I REALLY want to know so that I can ignore these people forever. I recommend you do the same.

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Frankly, I've never followed all the stroke order when writing chinese and everyone can read what I wrote just fine.
For example, I write 田 ta by drawing a box and adding a cross.

drawing a box and adding a cross

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Blasphemy!