やっとおわりました!

[Anayo]

Now I know 251 Kanji.
Only about 1750 more before I've got Japanese literacy! On to volume 2.

お見事～That's a good start but FYI, a kid in the 3rd grade elementary school knows more kanji. My kanji level is about 900+ (or just shy of kanji-ken 2-kyu) and still a kid in the 6th grade ES knows more than me. ;_;
It kinda puts things in perpective doesn't it?

This post wasn't to demotivate or anything, just to show the difference.

I'm not demotivated. I've had ample opportunity to feel that way already; the bonjinsha series takes ample time to show the few kanji it teaches combine with zillions of others that I haven't even touched yet. Vol. 2 should take me up to 500 and there's supposed to be a volume 3, but do you have any advice for someone at my level? How much can you read with 900 kanji?

[D.D.D.]

Now I know 251 Kanji.
Only about 1750 more before I've got Japanese literacy! On to volume 2.

お見事～That's a good start but FYI, a kid in the 3rd grade elementary school knows more kanji. My kanji level is about 900+ (or just shy of kanji-ken 2-kyu) and still a kid in the 6th grade ES knows more than me. ;_;
It kinda puts things in perpective doesn't it?

This post wasn't to demotivate or anything, just to show the difference.

I'm not demotivated. I've had ample opportunity to feel that way already; the bonjinsha series takes ample time to show the few kanji it teaches combine with zillions of others that I haven't even touched yet. Vol. 2 should take me up to 500 and there's supposed to be a volume 3, but do you have any advice for someone at my level? How much can you read with 900 kanji?

There's a brand of study books called Kumon and they're good for learning kanji. Also for flash cards, White Rabbit press makes really good cards too.
Get books that are geared towards J-elementary school kids as they'll help you start out. Kinokuniya is a good J-book store that can order anything directly from Japan.

My approach has been to use the Kumon books and White Rabbit flash cards + an electronic dictionary. I've spent a lot of time reading a book that I wanted to try while studying (1,2,3,4etc) grades of kanji. Then highlight and look up the ones I can't read, study those in depth, learn them, and re-read the book with better understanding of the kanji.

Practical application, in reading books or the text in games, is what really motivates and gets me moving when studying.
That's basically been what I've done. That and seeing kanji everyday everywhere makes a difference also (but not when you have no idea what it is).

Oh and check out http://www.rikai.com too. Great for copy n paste reading but it's not the best when it comes to vocab (it sometimes doesn't have a proper reading for 2 kanji together and stuff like that) but overall it's a good site.

About 900... Well, for common reading and travel, it's a little shy of the necessary kanji to exist in society, or so the Japanese ministry of education says. I do just fine reading but my vocab and speaking ability is much, much higher than my reading ability. But hey, I work full-time so my studying time gets cut a lot but just keep cracking at the books, games, web sites you want to read. Eventually it becomes part of your daily usage and it sticks with you. 一生懸命頑張ると大丈夫と思うよ。＾＿＾

[RackGaki]

If you just use tapes and books and stuff you could study forever without ever becoming really fluent.

I've been studying myself for four years, never took a single class.

I remember all the hiragana, though I start forgetting the katakana if I don't study it at least once a week, and can only make out a little over 100 kanji. Listened to a set of ten audio CD's a few times a week for a year.

But, without any practical application, learning Japanese is just a semi-futile exercise of the mind.

Like DDD says, there's a world of difference between fluency and conversational understanding. I know a bilingual Latino lady, and she speaks quite well, to the point where you don't realize she was born in Mexico - great accent. But if you steer the conversation towards anything specialized - automobiles, electronics, gardening, or even drop in puns or slang - and her limitations are apparent. She still knows more English than I know of any other language, so I still feel like a lazy ass.

[executioner]

So I'll ask you guys what would be the best approach if I wanna learn some japanese for say watching anime and understanding what they're saying and being able to play a japanese game and understanding all the text. For instance the last year and a half I've been studying german and I'm able to carry on conversations, obviously not fluid as one would like but very understandable, can also watch a movie or tv channel in german and understand about half of what they say because of the speed or words I don't know yet. My main goal is to know four languages, japanese will be my fourth because it would be more accesible to use since anime and gaming are a huge part of my everyday life and I can probably get a couple of friends into it since they have shown interest in the past when I mentioned it.

[D.D.D.]

Japanese 101 and since you're likely not living in Japan, you'll need to turn your studies up to 11 (meaning: reading, listening to music, watching movies/anime/whatever, and studying).
For any language, you need to immerse your brain in whatever language you study to get used to it and the more you do the better of course.
That or go on a study abroad trip for 2~3 months in Japan. That'll also work wonders~