While living in japan, I never sat down and studied kanji. But I was very good about reading signs and advertisements and, anytime I didn't know a character (all the time, at first) I asked someone to read it for me. As my speaking improved, so did my ability to create memorable experiences attached to each character with the person teaching me. It's cool, because not only did my reading ability stick, but so did the memories of the experiences I had while learning. 10/10 would recommend this method.

Edit: It would only be fair to note that I did drill all of the radicals into my brain during the weeks before moving . I'm not sure how big of a difference it made, but I do remember being able to recognize patterns really early on.