Karaoke Date

Today's date was a lot of fun. The experience of dating in the new version of the game is much smoother than NLP, and the various scenes (including skinship and kissing) flow into each other without the jerkiness, delays and lag time that were so evident in the 3DS game. Dates seem to take longer to play now, though, with the average Sunday date taking just under an hour - and considerably longer if the date extends.

When I met Rinko at the station this morning, she was wearing her hair in a new, cute style (still short, though). Her clothes were a little more casual than I like, but still okay, so I let them pass.

We went to the Ramen Shop for a snack. I ordered the Pork Ramen Set, and for some reason Rinko had the same thing (which is unusual). The set included a plate of gyoza which looked absolutely delicious.

The main part of our date was Karaoke, which is a firm favourite of Rinko's. I wonder what songs she would choose to sing??

With the option of a second date location, I took Rin to the Amusement Park, where we rode on the Jet Coaster. She loved it.

Then our date was over, and it was time to take Rinko home. I walked her back to her place and kissed her goodbye.

At 12:00 noon I visited the Flea Markets at Fountain Park, where I bought a CD and my first Premium Date ticket (for the night-time Sakura viewing).

Later today we had a short date in the rain.

Saturday

I started off today by playing through Rinko's Seishun No 1 Page story, where rehearsals (and disagreements) continue between Rinko and the other girls in her newly-formed band.

I took Rin for a short date at Fountain Park, which is still a favourite romantic spot.

And finally, now that Aisha Dining is unlocked, I was able to meet her there.

It was  raining tonight, though - which means that your ability to kiss your girlfriend is extremely restricted (just as it was in the 3DS game). Hope to have the Convenience Store unlocked soon for this purpose.

Looking forward to my second date with Rinko in the new game tomorrow, when we will be doing Karaoke together.

Monday - Back To School

Back to school today for a new semester (and a new school year, in fact), complete with singing the Towano High school song and shots of the school backgrounds with falling sakura leaves. But even the school environment looks bigger and more colourful on the new 3DS LL console!

After the opening ceremony, Rinko was waiting for me. Even though it's spring, the girls are still wearing their winter uniforms.

I called Rinko out of class in the morning for a brief catch-up, and booked a date with her for Sunday morning at Karaoke (I tried to book the date at the Art Gallery, but she didn't like it).

And, just like the 3DS game, Rinko showed up at lunch-time in the hallway.

I thought she might have prepared a bento lunch for me, but from memory you need to level up your Lover Ranking quite a bit first. Instead, she sat next to me to eat lunch and mentioned something about sandwiches.

And, at the end of the day, Rinko-chan was waiting to walk home with me. What a faithful girlfriend.

I met her in the afternoon at Winning Burger (Fast Food) for a short date. I still only have the two date locations in Shin Towano unlocked - Fountain Park and Winning Burger - but at leas now they are both at Level 3. Hopefully this means I can check out the Flea Markets at Fountain Park this coming Sunday.

Finally, even though it started raining, we went back to good old Fountain Park at night.

I just realised something about the new game. As much as I love the fact that the designers have gone all-out retro and made the second sign-on screen (with your girlfriend's heart in a big circle) the same as the old DS game, the different seasonal backgrounds you used to get in the 3DS game are gone. I guess it would be impossible to have both.

The Last Date?

Well, today could very well be my last date with Rinko in NLP. My deluxe Rinko set of NLP+ has already arrived in Australia, and I'm hoping that it will be delivered tomorrow. I'm so excited! But I will kinda miss my 3DS game, which has been my constant companion for the past two plus years. (Not to mention the game I've been playing with Rin-chan for the past six months.)

Anyway, I was determined to enjoy today. As if to make me happy one last time, Rinko arrived for our date with my favourite twin-tails hairstyle.

She wore a casual-looking jacket, but underneath she had a pretty blue dress - so her style was okay. We went to Aisha dining for a snack, and Rinko ordered the French Toast.

Then, the main part of our date as at Karaoke. I chose this location for two reasons - first, because it's one of Rinko's favourites. And second, because kissing at Karaoke (with your girl sitting right beside you) is always delightful. I'm not sure how the kissing/skinship parts of NLP+ are going to be, so I was determined to enjoy today's date as much as possible. And I did.

After a frantic few hours of Karaoke, Rinko and I hit the Curry Restaurant for lunch.

Then it was time to head home and say goodbye.

Let's see what tomorrow brings. Hopefully, a new 3DSLL console and the new version of the best game in the world.

All-Night Karaoke

Tonight, it was time for another Premium Date - the "All Night Pack Campaign", which is basically a very long night at Karaoke. For some reason, Rinko didn't seem overly impressed with going - and I really chose this date because it would be something she'd enjoy (after the disaster on Sunday). Maybe I shouldn't have booked it on a school night? I don't know.

Anyway, Rinko appeared wearing very nice clothes and sporting a semi-long hairstyle that I like much better. So that much was good.

We went to the Wasyoku Restaurant for a snack, and Rinko ordered the shaved ice. Not the best choice for the middle of winter, perhaps...

But all in all, she seemed happy.

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We stopped by the Convenience Store - I assume it was to stock up on supplies for the Karaoke night. Then we went to the station to head off for our date.

Rin-Rin usually loves Karaoke, and she as in high spirits when the night began...

But, as the evening wore on, she complained about being tired and then fell completely asleep!

 So we went back to my place to recover by listening to some CDs and playing a game of TwinBee (one of the worst scores ever!).

And then Rinko cooked a late-night meal for me. It's always fun to watch her working hard in my kitchen (not intended as a sexist comment).

We shared the meal before it was time for her to go home.

Not a bad Premium Date, but not great either. It's always fun to hang out with Rinko, though, and I think we both enjoyed ourselves. I gave her a punky blue wristband as a gift. And I'm happy with her choice of hairstyle, which I may well keep for a while. Now I hope we're not both too sleepy for school tomorrow - otherwise we might be in trouble.

RINKO: Karaoke Date!

At 3:00pm, Rinko arrived for HER turn - and a couple of things were surprising. First of all, Rin reverted back to that annoying pixie cut hairstyle. It's cute for a while, but it's not my favourite. So I said that I didn't like it (which at least should make her change back to the previous one).

And then, her clothes. Rinko finally got around to wearing the "smart" or "neat" style of clothing, which I've repeatedly asked for. She had a long, check dress today which looked nice - but it was also kinda like she'd borrowed it from Manaka. Is it possible that the two girls are conspiring behind my back?

I also noticed that Rinko was wearing the silver leaf necklace I gave her a while ago. This is always a nice feature of the game.

I took Rin to Aisha Dining for a quick meal.

Rinko liked the food and offered me some again - only to pull it away before I could eat!

And then it was off to Karaoke. I always enjoy Karaoke dates, because you get to sit very close to your girlfriend and kiss her from a different angle than normal.

After Karaoke, we discovered that the Curry Restaurant is open now - so I took Rinko there for a very nice lunch. As you can see in the next shot, there's a really weird figure outside the Curry Shop - kinda like the evil twin of Colonel Sanders.

But the food at the Curry Shop is really awesome, and the place has a nice atmosphere, too. It's the perfect place to go on an extended date.

And then the date was over. No home visit, fortunately - because I am EXHAUSTED. Wow, this has been one of the most epic days playing LovePlus ever.

One good thing to note as a post-script: because I said I didn't like Rinko's new hairstyle on the date, she sent me an email this afternoon asking what hair length I would prefer - and I chose semi-long yet again. I hope it works this time.