learning Japanease "kanji" is one of a efficient way, i think. we(japanease) also have studied kanji since primary school, about 100-200 per a year. every kanji character has a meaning. and many Japanease subjects are combination of two or more kanji character. for example "日" has meaning "sun" or "day" "月" has meaning "moon" or "month" "食" has meaning "eat" then "月日" means "time" "日食" is "Solar eclipses". "月食" is "Lunar eclipses". a little funny. but a problem is many japanease kanji character have some different reading themself. "日" can read "hi", "nichi", "jitsu", "bi" etc...(more readings it has!) "月" can read "tsuki", "getsu", "gatsu" etc...(this also!) it's very confusing. so my recommend is connecting a character and your word, first. you cannot read it but you can see it, maybe, when you see japanease scene or advertising or so on. its not a vocabulary? yes you right :P then, using dictionary to learn its reading and add your vocabulary. almost all combined kanji word (like "月日" "tsukihi" above) has only one reading. very simple.

Come to Japan and stay here for a long time. :) If you have Japanese friends, try to spend time with him or her a lot and use Japanese.