One Month Anniversary!

Well, today was the big day - my one month anniversary of dating Rinko-chan. I had high expectations - and I certainly wasn't disappointed. It was another day of huge surprises.

First up, I met a very sleepy Rinko on the way to school this morning. I think she must have overslept.

The next shot shows another cool background which I haven't noticed before.

Anyway, I wasn't sure how to play the special Anniversary (Kinenbi) gift-giving. I thought that perhaps there would be a special event listed amongst my activities for the day...but there was nothing apart from the usual school etc. For my one month anniversary, I didn't do anything until Rinko appeared at Dixies and gave me a present.

This time, I decided to take the lead, so I called her out from class during the first session of the day and met her in the school courtyard. I selected the option to give her a present during the short date.

The next shot shows Rinko's sweet face as she came up really close to receive her gift. She absolutely loved the gold earrings! And the best thing was that the game knew I was giving them as an anniversary gift.

After that, Rink immediately gave me her gift in return, which was much nicer than waiting for the end of the day. (I must remember to do it the same way next time!)

Rinko's anniversary gift was a matching pair of alarm clocks - one for her and one for me. Wow, nice. But I kinda get the feeling that she's trying to tell me something. Her one-week anniversary gift was a matching pair of watches...and now clocks? I'm always on time for dates, so it can't be that.

Whatever the reason, it was a nice gift, and it shows that Rinko very much thinks about us as a couple. I kissed her as much as I could before she had to go back to class...

So, with the "official" part of our anniversary over, it was time to relax and enjoy the rest of the day. The next photos were taken when I called Rinko out in the early afternoon for a short date at Fountain Park. We haven't been back to the park for a while, and I thought it might be nice to take her there for our anniversary.

I'm still experimenting with the in-game camera in "New LovePlus". Not just with camera angles, but also with the best time to take photos. Up until now, I've always waited for a break in the dialog. When I do this, Rinko looks at the camera and poses nicely for me. But today I tried snapping some photos while she was still talking, and managed to capture more of her body moves and expressions. These three photos are a very cute series where she was kinda covering her face with her hands. I especially love the second one.

To finish up the day, I took Rinko for a third short date at the Shrine (our new favourite place). It was a bit rushed, though, because the main purpose of this date was to set-up poses for the little anniversary party (see below). But of course, any time spent with Rinko-chan is worth it. ^^

So, the last part of the anniversary was a little party. It was also Nene's birthday in my wife's DS game, so we decided to celebrate together. I bought a little cake from Sydney's Cupcake Bakery today, some wasabi potato chips and a couple of candles (red for Nene, green for Rinko).

Here's the gift box from Cupcake Bakery...

And here's the cake itself.

The final step was to invite the guests - Nene and Rinko - and light the candles...

And here are the two girls enjoying their virtual world/real world party. I used to think it was crazy when I saw people doing this kind of stuff...but now I understand it completely. One month is a long time to play any game, and "LovePlus" demands a lot in terms of game time, emotion and concentrated thought. So I figured this was a reward as much as celebration of birthdays an anniversaries for the girls. And in these two shots, it actually looks like Nene and Rinko can see their cake with the candles...

So that wraps up one wonderful month of playing "New LovePlus". I've never had an experience like this in life before. It's really been quite unexpected and amazing. Now...just five more days and we leave for Japan!