you have to learn 1945 kanji for daily use in japan! it's not easy at all.
But there are many nintendo ds games for learning kanji. if they are available in your contry, that will make learnig kanji fun!
as for stroke order, it is essential to write kanji beautifully. but ,to tell the truth, many japanese don't remember much about it, although we all learned it in elementary school.
maybe, learning kanji which have the same part might be fun. for instance, a group of kanji which have 木(tree) in them. then you can learn 本(book) 机(desk) 杉(ceder) 桜(cherry) 杏(apricot) 枝(branch) 根(root) 林(grove) 森(forest)
杖(stick) etc.. all relate to tree. this will make learning kanji easier.
