Great podcasts thank you very much.
yep, start katakana as soon as possible. kana invaders is a great game both my husband and I used to help with learning both hiragana and katakana 
It sounds like a vocab app would really help you then if you are just starting. It will teach you more of the everyday vocab you need. Wanikani is made first and foremost as a kanji learning tool and the vocab you learn will be to help you learn the kanji - not to increase your ability to speak everyday Japanese per se (some of the words are not in common usage). Duolingo is also a great intro to early grammar and is free (always good).
And most importantly, best of luck and don’t give up!
Something that helps me a lot is listening to the word.
Do you have auto audioplay on for your lessons and reviews? Maybe that could help you too.
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I supplement with anki and have a deck for wanikani kanji and vocab. When I do lessons on wanikani, I type the kanji, meaning, and reading onto an anki flashcard so I can review even when not doing reviews on wanikani, but I think just that act of typing it into the flashcard or writing it out somewhere helps me retain things a little more. I’ve also found making my own mnemonics when possible, when the mnemonics on wanikani don’t do anything for me, extremely helpful, and thankfully wk has that little space on each meaning/reading page where you can type in your own stuff.
Oh good point i’ll turn this on, this should help!
I started with Duolingo as well, then I moved on to WK and Bunpro and bought myself Genki. You’re right that everyone criticises DL but I found it very rewarding, especially in teaching Hiragana, Katakana and understanding basic sentence structure and some bits of vocab. It’s a really good way to start, I think.
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Actually actively visualize the mnemonic.
It’s one thing to say, “oh yeah, dog on a shoulder, got it.” It’s another thing to actually imagine a giant man with a yapping chihuahua on his shoulder like a parrot, being generally annoying as hell. Or a normal-sized person trying to walk with a great dane hanging off them. If you can incorporate your senses (see it, hear it, smell it, feel it, taste it - if applicable), it’ll all come much easier.
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As someone with Aphantasia (imagination blindness), this response makes me sad. Not because it’s bad advice, just because I can’t do it.
Most of my mnemonics work through logical leaps or sounding out words in my head. At least until I can drop them like a rock.
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Not sure if you know, but the people who made “Learn Japanese to Survive” made a sequel for katakana, and it’s much improved over the first (which was still quite fun, even though I know my hiragana already 
If you only plan to learn Japanese as a hobby (such as watching anime without subtitles and the like), then you don’t really need to focus on katakana tremendously. If you intend to visit Japan, on the other hand, DEFINITELY learn katakana. Unless you go to a kindergarten/daycare, you will see katakana essentially everywhere, and hiragana will mostly only be used for grammar purposes (particles, verb endings, etc). There are quite a few hiragana only words that are used commonly of course, but kanji and katakana will be the bulk of word reading in Japan.
@Sharpevil Interesting to hear there was a term invented for that. Though no scientific basis was ever established, I too share the inability to visually recreate something in my head. “Images” are simply compound blocks of details. Glad to see I’m not alone in (sparing) usage of logically based mnemonics… 
I would say that without a doubt, you cannot learn japanese from Wanikani alone. I would go and get yourself a textbook not just for grammar but for practice with unusual readings, sentence structure, and reading comprehension. Try Genki 1. Its pretty good.
Im probally only a week ahead of you, and felt the same when i hit the vocabulary. I was like “how is this possible” lol. I went back and hit up the katakana guide on tofugu in between waiting for the lessons and it really made a huge difference for me at least.
While it’s not entirely consistent due to the fact that some kanji simply don’t have/utilize either kunyomi (Japanese readings, usually standalone vocabulary) or onyomi (Chinese readings, usually kanji), you’ll find that the “kanji” readings are short, sound-like readings that would feel weird being an actual word, and standalone “vocabulary” readings sound more like actual words. Due to the brevity of most words in the early levels, it’s more difficult to see.
The kanji reading, unless kunyomi (and therefore less likely to have an alternate reading) rarely exceeds 2 English syllables. For example, 力 （ちから) is easy to note as the vocabulary reading because it has 3 syllables. I can’t think of any 3+ syllable onyomi (usually the “kanji” reading) at the moment, but someone correct me if I’m wrong. On the other hand, the kunyomi (usually the standalone vocabulary reading) can be any number of syllables.
人 will be one of your worst enemies in the beginning vocab, so take a particular interest in how it changes. 大人 is an unfortunate exception belonging in a fairly small grouping of words where the readings don’t actually respond to the kanji. A detailed look through the forums will show you that even level 20+ users sometimes mess up which reading to use for it.
I feel like one of the things that can help you is installing a userscipt like, Wani self study so you can prestudy the items before the review.
Thanks for reminding me about an article that I read on exercising after studying from way back. I’ll start doing that ASAP.
Thats exactly what I did. Human Japanese is great
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