The Remembering the Kanji book is good, but when I was studying hardcore I just studied flash cards every day with the goal of learning 50 new kanji every day. Mental association is great but repetition also works wonders if you can handle it. Combine the two for maximum retention. And once you think you have a good base of kanji, just start reading stuff. Manga, subtitles, magazines, etc. Though I would avoid newspapers at the beginning as they tend to use a lot of high level kanji and you end up with not much comprehensible input.

Same with listening. Listen to the same thing over and over and BURN that shit into your head. Then it will start to replay in your head the same way music does.

日本語の勉強頑張ってね。