I've been going at RTK1 for a few month and am finally nearing the end of the book. Just as well really, because at over frame 1700 with 100+ reviews each day (not to mention fixing my failed cards and adding new ones), I'm starting to get tired of the process. But I digress.

I've started looking at Japanese websites and other texts and am finding I can't recall the meaning of some characters, even when I recognise the Kanji and its primitives very well. Sometimes, even, I'm able to remember parts of my stories but will still not reach the exact word!

This may just be me worrying about nothing; it most certainly doesn't happen all the time, but I'm starting to think I've been doing something dreadfully wrong. Any advice?

I never personally had this problem but making some kanji -> keyword cards to study in Anki might help.

On the main site here, if you click on 'reading' up at the top, you can input some text and any kanji you've already learnt will be shaded. If you put the mouse cursor over them, the keyword will pop up.

Perhaps you could try use that every now and again, to practice seeing if you can remember the meanings? (It would be handy with a website, since you can copy and paste the text from it.)

I've actually used the "reading" tab quite a few times with varied success. Sometimes my recall is good but at other times it's dreadful and starts to worry me (as it has done tonight).

I guess my question is more "What should I do if I fail to recall the meaning of a character?" I mean, I'm often almost certain that I would have been able to remember the kanji had I been given the keyword to work from. It's driving me mad! Should I start reworking another story if I fail on finding the meaning, or should I just accept that with 2000 stories in my brain, I'm going to be forgetting some for a good while yet?

Thanks guys.

It happens to me too and while I find it annoying, I do not worry about it. As it happens, I look it up and it has never happened so far that I fail to remember it again at a later time.

Besides, the keywords aren't really important. When you read the text, you saw a real Japanese word, not a single kanji. Learn that word instead and you'll think of that word the next time you see the kanji, not the keyword. In the long run, that will probably benefit you more.