I memorized kanji in the order laid out by James Heisig in "Remembering the Kanji." It's a guide to creating mnemonics for kanji, it has a strict learning orde

I memorized kanji in the order laid out by James Heisig in "Remembering the Kanji." It's a guide to creating mnemonics for kanji, it has a strict learning order. You can probably read the introduction on the preview on Amazon if you're curious about how it works. As for vocab, for example I would go for a walk in the park and create memorable mnemonics for the vocab words I saw and the park itself would be a memory palace. Later when I wanted to say the word "vending machine" I would pull the Heisig mnemonics for the vending machine I saw in the park and recreate the word. Today when I'm speaking Japanese I don't have to think about about mnemonics unless I've forgotten a word, then I kind of "look it up" in my memory palace. The thing about the memory palace method is that it's not really fast recall, it's more like keeping a notebook in your brain until it has been adjusted to your working memory.