Hello there I started the book along with this website this week and I'm at the 200 mark right now but I have a question. When I'm reviewing and I get the keyword I just recall the general look of the kanji and it primitives on my mind and if I remember correctly I mark is as remembered if I don't recall the kanji at all I mark as failed. Is it ok like this? Or should I try to remember it stroke by stroke? I'm not that interested in learning how to write (even though I know that sooner or later that decision will come bite me in the ass) I just want to learn how to read and I think that if I see the kanji while reading I may remember the keyword (or how is read when I actually learn how to read it later on).

I believe that my recall is better when I write them once during my reviews. I use a small dry erase board for this.

You should definitely recall it stroke by stroke, preferably in the right stroke order and direction. Knowing the stroke count is a powerful tool when searching for an unusual character, and knowing the correct stroke order and direction is a powerful tool when trying to read handwriting (or fonts that imitate handwriting, or really any written kanji that aren't the common computer fonts.)

It does not take long to learn the strokes correctly, since you really only need to learn them once for each element and the same order keeps getting reused.

Also, I think practicing writing them at least a little helps tremendously in recall and recognition. And one day, you will probably want to write something, if only to make a note to yourself when you see something out in the world and want to copy it down to look up on the computer later.

Learning the correct stroke order is stuff all effort in the long run. Just learn it properly and be done with it. You'll be grateful when it's all done.

I'm not interested in learning how to write either, but I do it anyway because it doesn't add much to the effort. If I'm going to invest that much time into something, I'd rather do it 100% right than 50% right just to save a little time.

if you just want to read then it dont matter. hell I learned to read 1000 kanji + just from doing songs in japaense and i could not remember how to write any of the kanji cause i had yet to do rtk or learn about radicals... recognizing is not that hard...

go sing lots of japanese songs. you'll learn to read at least 1000 kanji if you do enough songs.

but then again if you mean read to fluency you should learn about radicals and stuff

The problem with not writing them when you review is that you trick yourself into false-positives.

Not to mention, a big strength of RTK is your ability to notice the difference between very similar kanji, and you lose that if you're only trying to do a vague recall of the kanji in your brain. (My girlfriend is Japanese, and just three days ago on Christmas Eve I called her out on incorrectly reading 露 as しも. It should be つゆ, しも is 霜. That's RTK for you.)

It doesn't take much time to write them anyway. Just do it. Cutting corners doesn't help your studies in the long run.

Writing is very useful. Knowing how things are written properly will allow you to read messy handwriting. At the very least write with your finger into the palm of your hand when you review. A whiteboard or paper is even better.

Think about it, just because you can read something doesn't mean you can write it. If you know how to write it, your going to be able to read it for sure. Going the extra mile will help solidify your memory in the long run.

Not to mention it is also easier to remember the strokenumber as well.

Plus I feel that it helps me in the vocab phase when I write the words down at least once.

You can also write the kanji on your palm with your fingertip if you don't want to waste paper or ink.I recently started to do this, but I used to write a lot before.