Use online resources such as Dartmouth College's Kanji Practice and study aids to improve your recognition of characters and vocabulary. Pay particular attention to the parts of a character that make up the whole meaning. Japanese characters appear as if they are one character drawing, but are actually made up of several characters of varying definition to form the meaning of the character. Use a dictionary translation that portrays characters and lists their meanings in your native language. To determine whether to read the kanji character you are reading with its original "on-yomi" Chinese pronunciation, or its "kun-yomi" which is derived from the original Japanese word, look to the characters surrounding the Kanji. They may be in either kanji, or katakana or hiragana, and will help you determine which pronunciation or reading to use.
Look for furigana, the smaller hiragana figures alongside the kanji, to determine the pronunciation of the character. Publications for language students and manga books often include furigana for those who are still learning kanji, however not all publications will have them.
Look for the radical within the kanji character. Kanji, despite appearing as one graphic, actually consists of several segments, one of which is used to organize kanji in dictionaries: the radical. The radical is a smaller version of another character that speaks to the meaning of the whole character and may remind you what the character means.
Draw character strokes from left to right and top to bottom, as is the correct direction. This is important because the placement of an ending stroke could alter the meaning of the character if you make your strokes in the wrong direction, thus inaccurately drawing the character depending on the pressure you are using on the pen. Alternating the stroke direction can give the appearance of the lines being backwards.
Use the correct stroke order when writing characters, in addition to working from left to right and top to bottom. Begin with a vertical line for two adjoining perpendicular strokes.
Note where combining symbols makes for a new meaning. For example by writing two kanji symbols side by side that carry the meaning "tree," together they represent the word "wood."