Conversely, once you have a good grasp of kanji you are in good shape. If I come across a word I'm not familiar with there is a good chance I can figure it out without looking it up by seeing what characters compose it.

I've dabbled in Chinese and Korean as well and it's insane the boost that knowing Chinese characters gives, whereas with Korean its like I'm left alone in a desert. Many words come from the same Chinese words but they no longer use the characters so deciphering things is difficult for me.