I just read this:
http://japaneselevelup.com/2011/01/29/ho...t-1-kanji/
and I'm pretty confused after reading it.

I guess I'm confused because I haven't even looked at RTK2 yet and I don't know what on-yomi and kun-yomi are. I'm up to about 700 kanji now and I thought maybe I'd like to know what comes after I finish RTK1.

Even though I'm not finished with RTK1 I'd like to start reading kanji, but I don't even know where to start. When I review my Genki 1 textbook, I'll use the kanji if I know it. If don't I just use the furigana. What does everybody think of the method described on this Japanese Level Up page?

I downloaded his version of the RTK deck and took a look. The major difference is that he's added Japanese keywords along with the English keywords. I guess that would be a major vocab booster. What do you think?

Many kanjis are used in many compounds and often have many different readings ("reading" = pronunciation). Remember the Kanji was designed to be the first part of studying Japanese. With those two facts in mind, I'm not sure it's such a good idea to introduce readings/pronunciation at this stage. For one thing, you'd only be learning ONE reading per kanji. Some very common words have irregular readings, to make matters worse. Also, you're going against the idea of splitting up the task (i.e.: learning Japanese) into small pieces. IMHO, it's more fun to first learn the kanjis, then learn words.

On my first 3000 words, there were 1277 unique kanjis used (and those include a couple of RTK3!) What this means is: some kanjis get used a lot and some not so often. Of course, 3000 words is really not that much, but I'm not sure how motivating it would be to learn more advanced vocab using every kanji (while restricting yourself to a single word for some really common ones). Of course, on the other hand, you would be learning some vocabulary and this can't hurt that much

I finished RTK1 months ago, but for a while I've been adding Japanese keywords to my deck in the same way Adshap did for the JAL RTK deck (except I chose to maintain all 2200 Kanji).

It helps a ton with telling apart keywords that otherwise might start to become confusing after beginning to study the language itself. It's also exposing me to a lot of vocabulary. However, I think doing this is more useful after finishing the book unless you're coming into RTK with a higher level of Japanese (or if your deck already comes with Japanese words like that JAL deck).

You should also keep in mind that Adshap adds Japanese words to the RTK deck as an additional memory aid to help write the Kanji. The stories and keywords naturally start becoming fuzzy and less useful as time goes on, but you'll see Japanese words so often that it'll be better at jogging your memory in the long run.

If you really want to start learning how to read Kanji, you should start learning vocabulary. There are a zillion ways to accomplish that: your textbooks, the Core decks, native media, or websites like japaneseclass.jp.

Ok, thanks for the tips. If I can keep going at the rate I am going I should be finished with RTK1 in less than 6 months. My japanese gf always yells at me because I'm learning such obscure kanji, but she doesn't get it.

Of course I am learning Japanese vocab at the same time. I just feel like my japanese study is crippled because I need furigana to understand almost anything. I'll just keep pushing through and move onto RTK2 when I finish with RTK1.

In addition to adding Japanese keywords (which you can ignore at first but become useful later on) and English hints to prevent keyword mixups, the author of the levelup deck has also removed quite a few kanji with little practical value (probably the ones your girlfriend mentioned). Personally I chose to learn them anyway, but it can be useful if you want to reduce the workload a bit.

I've just finished RTK1, but furigana is still a must for me and it'll probably stay that way for some time. Actually, furigana is the most useful after finishing the book because beside being able to read the words you'll associate the kanji with the vocab and learn readings at the same time. I recommend learning the basics about the different types of readings now; knowing what's used where in most situations helps keeping them distinct in memory. Like the others I don't think it's a good idea to learn readings along with the kanji, but rather let it come naturally after time. It's no use to know a reading without knowing any word it's used in anyway.