What are your most effective methods/tricks for studying Japanese?

This may be somewhat misnomer as well as misleading by the topic so before I begin this is not asking "What is a quick and easy way to learn Japanese!" I think we all know that there is no such thing for languages. However, there are certain methods that prove to help absorb material, or remember things better. Maybe "study practices" is the best term to use.

Right now I'm on break till my next study trip to Japan, and I'm trying to use this time to seriously boost my skill with Japanese as much as possible before heading out since I have had almost no time to study seriously in a while.

Therefore I am curious, what methods have you all found effective for studying Japanese around the "so-called" intermediate level? Specifically for:

1)Vocabulary memorization
2)Grammar use
3)Kanji... (AKA, the 10 meter tall speed bump in Japanese reading)

Thank you to any who post. As for myself, I have little in the way of methods other than grunt work so I'm no expect on this myself.

My answer are really only in my experience, so, for those who have a basic knowledge already.

1) Translating - If you already understand most of the scentence you are translating, except for one word, when you look up what that word means not only will you remember what it means, but how to use it. Translating also helps in many other ways, like slang, scentence structure, etc.

2) Immersion - Really one of the best ways I beleive, to learn a language is to be around those who use it, and see it everywhere. Also when you have no choice other than to use it, you'll learn fast, haha.

3) Practice, practice.. practice..... - Don't expect to learn without trying, haha.

I stick post-its with kanji on, around my computer monitor at work, so I am looking at them all the time... with the readings underneath in hiragana. Or else, sample words with those kanji in them.

Interesting ideas so far guys.

I didn't consider the idea of translating for remembering vocab, I think I'll have to try that a bit more now.

True love!

Get a Japanese lover who does not speak your language! I learned more in the few months with my girlfriend who spoke NO English then I did in the year before I dated her. OH, and did I mention "live in Japan" where you have to use Japanese everyday. You might get a good base foundation to build on from books or classes or CD's, but if you don't "LIVE IT" everyday, forget becoming fluent like a native. Just my gut feeling about it.

Uncle Frank

I already have the "live it" factor down, since I will be returning for yet another year of study abroad (or longer) and I'm also planning to head for graduate school in Japan. However, as you mentioned there is a good base that is built from books and classes that I'm trying to put forth before returning to Japan. It seems that while living in Japan is great, if you don't have the base and extra knowledge from the hard study, you just aren't going to have the material to learn.

I listen to "Jedutainment.com" to and from work, in my car. This mostly helps with memorizing vocabulary. Each episode is about word classifications, like u-verbs, ru-verbs, i-adjectives, na-adjectives, relative time, counters, etc. There are a couple of other podcasts that aid Japanese language students in the iTunes Music Store, although you can probably find them via Internet browser if you have an MP3 player that's not iPod. I will pay a fortune to whoever can teach Kanji via podcast. XDDD

feeds.feedburner.com/jedutainment

My key to remembering vocab is to not create random word lists, but rather let the words come to you first. I keep notes of new words that I come across, whether it be a train announcement, something I read in a book, something that someone says, then once every couple of weeks I compile those notes into a flashcard file. If the words I learn are just a list out of a text, I will forget almost 80% of them, but this method lets me retain words at around 90%.

Vocabulary & memorization: Usage, (this goes the same for kanji), your usage of vocabulary will allow you to remember them moreso than rote memorization of vocabulary... Good texts will introduce words in dialogs, and then keep using these words to reinforce your memorization.

When I was trying to remember how to say some things about myself, like how long I lived in Japan, so I spent a good 15 minutes last night, repeating the words out loud... rokukkagetsu sunde imashita, you have to speak the language out loud, this reinforces memory, and lets you practice pronunciation... Do this when listening to dialog as well...

Another great podcast is Japanesepod101, they have different levels of dialog and their Japanese is natural sounding, much more natural sounding then the types of dialog you actually get with course work.

I'm a big fan of the "Japanese Girlfriend" aspect of learning, I learned so much about pronunciation, and colloquial Japanese, though she wasn't always great at explaining (in English) the meanings of more complicated words/phraes that didn't have direct English translation.

Kanji, I like to think of a characters built upon the radicals that themselves may be characters, as well as the building blocks for words... and then the words in context... usage and re-usage, over rote-memorization is the key.

Use it, or lose it... that seems to be the key to learning Japanese. Make it a part of every day, even if speaking to yourself out loud seems strange, try to find something each day to apply to learning Japanese, using it, writing it, listening to it.

Oh, and like Bucko, I use an application to keep track of words that I come across that I'd like to remember... Unfortunately I'm searching for a better program that will allow me to build vocabulary lists, I'm using KanjiSharp right now and thats not currently in development, ---I'm half tempted to ask the author for the source (I'm proficient in C#), and feel I could make some improvements on it.

If anyone has any software recommendations geared towards learning Japanese, I'd be interesting in hearing them.