Am I memorizing vocab wrong?

Hey all,

Sorry in advance for a really strange question XD I currently know ~300 words and I’m starting to wonder if I’m using a poor method of actually memorizing vocab. Here’s an example of what I mean. If I wanted to learn the Japanese word for weather, I wouldn’t “just memorize” the word tenki. Instead I think that “tenki” is similar enough to the word tanki which is a game I used to play during snowy weather which creates a connection that allows me to remember the word easier in the future. This is a LOT easier than me just memorizing that tenki means weather. I’m starting to realize, however, that there are some big drawbacks to this method:

-sometimes there isn’t really a logical connection between a given English and Japanese word, which means I have to really come up with a stretch which hurts my ability to remember.

-there can be some ambiguity: going back to the example with tenki, I could mistake the connection and think it means snow or snowy weather instead etc

-It slows recall because instead of just jumping from A to B, I need to recall the intermediate connection

I’m just not sure. It makes it really easy to “learn” a lot of words in a short amount of time but I’m worried that this might not be the optimal way to go about memorizing vocabulary and I’m curious if you all have any input or advice.

Thanks in advance!