...And An Even Quieter Friday

From today's "Seishun No. 1 Page", more discussions about the band and the upcoming Live show...

Today was another "summer service" day, which meant spending half the day at school. But it wasn't without its compensations: kissing Rinko in her uniform, in spite of her protests...

And then later, when she arrived with a gift for me...

This is one of those random gifts that you get when you're playing through the early stages of the game. You don't get to see what it is, and I'm never really quite sure why you get it...but still, it's a nice thought.

These last shots are from my afternoon meet-up with Rin at the Coffee Shop, which has only just opened. Her pink camo outfit is kinda cute and weird at the same time.

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SIDE STORY - MANAKA
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And it was a very quiet day in my DS game, too. I mostly spent it playing Skip Mode to get my stats back up to at least one hear for everything. Then I called Manaka and invited her for a date on Sunday at 11 am. Manaka also called ME again, and wanted to meet me at 3 pm today. Of course, I couldn't refuse.

Very Quiet Thursday

A very quiet Thursday in Towano - but still very enjoyable. The day started off with today's chapter of the "Seishun No. 1 Page", with more discussions between Rinko and the band, and rehearsals for their first live show.

The rest of the day I was quite busy at work, so I only had time for quick meet-ups and unlocking date locations. Tonight, I was able to meet Rin at the Combini (Convenience Store) for the first time. Convenience stores in Japan are awesome - nothing like in the West - and you can buy just about anything there. Anyone who's played the "friendship" half of the game with Rinko will know that she often likes to hang out at this Combini  in New Towano.

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SIDE STORY - MANAKA
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Or maybe I should change the name for this part of my blog from "Side Story", because I love playing the old DS game in English with Manaka. Today, she called me and wanted to meet up at 7 pm outside her house. I met her there and we talked and kissed, and it was very romantic.

It's really hard to decide which game I like more - the 3DS game with Rinko, or the DS game with Manaka. They both have their charms, both have their problems, and I wouldn't like to miss out on either one. Certainly the skinship and kissing, and also LovePlus Mode, are much better in the old game. But the new game has a lot of cool stuff. Argghh! I have to say that I love them both, and I'm able to keep them quite separate in my mind now, with the two different girls.

Meanwhile my stats in the Manaka game are really really low, but maybe by the end of tomorrow I'll be able to book a date with her for Sunday. School starts again next week, so dating options are going to be more limited. Might as well enjoy the holidays while I still can...

The Cuteness Continues

Today was quite an interesting day in Towano. Since it was my two week anniversary with Rinko, I decided to meet her this morning and give her a small gift (the black leaf necklace I'd bought at the Flea Markets on Sunday). As you can see, she was very thankful.

What's up with that outfit, though? Many things have changed since my first game, but Rinko's fashion sense doesn't seem to have improved. One interesting thing I've noticed - when I played the game the first time, Rinko met me for special events on our one and two week anniversary days, and even gave me a small gift - but not this time. I swear she remembers me from the previous game.

Today's "Seishun No. 1 Page" saw the band resolve their differences by swapping roles - Rinko (who initially wanted to play guitar) agreed to switch to bass and let one of the other girls have the lead role.

Here's  Rin, still hogging that strat...

Just like the Beatles, contemplating a change of direction on the rooftop...

And finally, after she switches to the Fender bass. The level of detail is nice, because it's easy to tell the instruments apart, and the bass even has four strings like a real one.

It was another "summer service" day, so we had to go to school for half a day in the morning (which has happened every day this past week). Anyway, when Rin spoke to me, I grabbed the chance to kiss her. She protested quite loudly against making out while we were at school...and then went ahead and let me kiss her anyway. But you know what? After the kiss, she punched me.

What a girl! Now maybe you can understand why I'm enjoying playing with the orange personality Manaka in the old DS game...

But of course, I still love my cute and (occasionally) violent little Rinko. ^^;

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SIDE STORY - MANAKA
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Today was mostly short meet-ups and Love Plus Mode with Manaka. I find the orange Manaka in the old game much more cute and attractive than Manaka in the 3DS game. I don't really know why. But every time I turn on the game and she greets me on the first screen, that shy expression kinda melts my heart.

Preparations

Today saw Rinko's band, "In The Rye", preparing for their first live at the Live House in Towano. There's still some friction between members, and a lot of stage fright, but Rin seems to be holding it all together. Here's some shots from today's "Seishun No. 1 Page"...

You know, I'm actually starting to like Rin with this short hairstyle! I always thought I would prefer long or medium long hair...but this 'do is starting to grow on me. Rinko looks pretty young like this, but that's okay because it's also cute. Here are a couple of shots from our afternoon meet-up and Fountain Park.

I have a date booked with Rin for this coming Sunday at 9:30 am, so basically the rest of the week will be building up stats and getting ready.


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SIDE STORY - MANAKA
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Today's date with Manaka in the DS version was pretty amazing, too - it took me around an hour at lunchtime to play all the way through! We started off going to the Amusement Park and riding the Ferris Wheel. Then, with a second date option, we went to Fountain Park. And then - yes, there was still more! - to Winning Burger for a drink and a snack. Manaka was in a mood where she wanted to never stop kissing me, including when she "forgot something" and the end of the date and came back to kiss me some more.

I'm enjoying playing the two different versions of LovePlus side-by-side now, and with the two very different girls it's actually not confusing at all. Obviously I love the DS version because of the English Patch, but there's so much cool stuff in the 3DS version that I wouldn't want to miss out on that, either.

Can't wait for "New LovePlus +" next year. I'm hoping that I might be able to be in Japan for the launch, but maybe that's just a pipe dream right now. There's no definite date from Konami yet, so we'll have to wait and see...

Your Monday Dose Of Cuteness

Rinko still had her sweet bobbed hairstyle today, and we met a few times for short dates:

I think Rin-chan looks cute like this, but I still would prefer long or medium-long hair. One good thing that happened today: Rinko-chan changed my nickname to "darling", which is my all-time favourite. (I think I will keep her calling me this for the rest of the game.)

The last few photos are from my Skip Mode days, which I was playing mostly to start unlocking a few more date locations and build up stats. I've booked a date with her on Wednesday at 12:30, so I need to be ready. Anyways, the combination of her short hair, the school uniform, and even an umbrella (in the last shot) were too cute not to post.

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SIDE STORY - MANAKA
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After much deliberation, I finally started a game with Manaka on the DS version of "LovePlus" with the English patch. I've been kinda interested in Manaka for a while now, and I actually think Manaka looks nicer in the old DS version. So, after just 56 days, Manaka confessed to me and I started off a game with her today - playing in between the gaps of my main game on the 3DS with Rinko. I hope this doesn't get confusing. I'll try to report on my adventures with both girls (although it's more difficult to take photos of the Manaka game, because there's no in-game camera).

The "orange" personality Manaka is lovely (she's the "kind and obedient" one), very different from Rinko, and I'm enjoying the game with her - especially with the English patch. I have a date with her tomorrow at lunchtime.

Yummy

After this morning's busy date, I spent the rest of today fairly quietly. A short meeting at the Shrine first:

Then, the afternoon event. I had been expecting another visit to the Matsuri (summer festival)...but no. Instead, Rinko-chan invited me to her house and cooked for me. I chose Chinese food, and this is what she made:

After the meal, we sat on her bed and talked for a while. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

 I don't have a lot of plans for next week yet. My stats are all terminally low after the Premium Date plus the date today, so I guess I'll have to do some Skip Mode days tomorrow and get my hearts back. After that, I'll try to date Rinko-chan about Wednesday, because it's the last week of Summer Holidays before school starts back the following week.

Electric Town Date...?

Well, Rinko arrived for our date this morning looking super cute. No long hair (sadly), or even medium-long hair...but a very cute, short bob cut, which at least is an improvement over her default hairstyle. She also wore the kawaii (cute) clothes style. Once again, it's a big improvement over casual. This Rinko-chan looks very summery, and kinda reminds me of Natalie Portman in the movie "Leon".

We went to Dixies for a snack, where I ordered Kake Soba and got a plate of sandwiches. Rinko looked amused by the mix-up...

And here we are on the train to what I thought was going to be Electric Town (but actually wasn't). Thank goodness the real Tokyo train system is more reliable.

Instead of Electric Town, we ended up at Karaoke! Rink loves Karaoke, so that wasn't a problem as such...but still. Maybe it's because I only had two hearts for all my stats (including fitness and intelligence)??? Somebody said it makes a difference, and it's actually not a bug in the game. But it can be very annoying.

But it wasn't all bad news. After Karaoke I had the choice to select a second place to go, and of course I chose Electric Town. Here's my Rinko, standing in the main street of Akihabara.

The Cat Cafe sadly wasn't an option (yet - maybe I have to level up?), so I took her to the Anime Shop instead.

All in all, it was a simple but good date. You can see more of Rinko's cute outfit in the next shot, where she was just about to say "bye bye".

This last shot is from today's chapter of the "Seishun No. 1 Page". It seems that all the problems haven't been worked out yet between Rinko and the library girls!