/jp/ - Otaku Culture

It's my first time on this board because I the thing I have to do with "Japanese culture" is anime rhythm games and Japanese music (I don't even watch anime but used to).
One thing caught my attention is touhou. I liked the art, the cute girls and especially the music. I wanted to take it seriously this time by playing the games. I started in 2hu 8 and looked up the basic mechanics ( although I didn't understand some) I played the game and really enjoyed it. But I want to improve in it now and maybe beat lunatic.
My question now is how can I get better at it? The obvious answer is play more but the only thing I know is pressing z and my arrow buttons, I feel like I'm not improving and probably not getting the core of the game so there's no feedback hence no improvement. Will I discover some of the mechanics by myself as time goes on or what? Will I subconsciously improve after playing and losing?