My Favourite Rinko!!!

When I met Rin-Rin for our date this morning, I had such an unexpected surprise. Not only had my girlfriend changed her hair length to my preferred semi-long style, but also...she had switched to carrot red hair, which is my all-time favourite. I remember that Rinko had this hair colour around two years ago in my 3DS game, and I loved it so much - but I was never able to get the colour back again (and when I tried, she ended up with horrible shades of blue and green hair).

Actually, I don't know why it happened this time. I don't remember answering a question about changing hair colour - but, then again, my Japanese isn't at expert level, so maybe she did ask me and I misunderstood. No matter. I think Rinko looks absolutely adorable and so, so attractive with red hair. I hope she stays this way for a LONG time!

So as you can imagine, I did a double-take when Rinko walked up to me at the station this morning. This hair colour looks even more incredible on the big, bright 3DSLL screen - and kissing a red-haired Rinko is a treat. I've enjoyed the new game so far - but now I'm going to love it even more.

After getting my breath back and recovering from my "shock and awe", I set off on the train with Rin-Rin to our date location - the Event Hall in the Waterfront area. I love this entire area, because it reminds me of Yokohama in Japan.

We arrived at the station in good time and decided to go to the Restaurant for a quick meal.

Rinko ordered the rice omelet (Omurice) and I had steak.

It's much easier to take photos of your girlfriend eating in the new game, because the camera icon stays on the whole time. You could do it in the 3DS game, but you had to be super-fast.

And then we walked together through the pretty shops in the Waterfront area. But Rinko was the prettiest of all!

The event at the Event Hall turned out to be Pro Wrestling, which Rinko surprisingly enjoyed.

When the second option came up during our date, I chose to have another meal - without realising that the only food place I've unlocked in the Waterfront area is the Restaurant. So we had to go back to the same place twice. Never mind. Rinko ordered the Hamburger Curry this time, while I had Cheese Croquettes.

Then I took my Rinko home, and that was pretty much it for today's date - but what a thrill it was. The only thing I wasn't overly impressed with was her choice of clothes. I think this is Rinko's "cute" style, but it doesn't quite work. I still prefer her wearing smart/formal clothes for our dates, but I can work on this over the next few weeks. I'm just so happy to have my red-haired cutie back.

This afternoon there is some kind of special event, which I think may be connected to next week's trip to Kinugawa. I'll post about it separately.

Premium Date: Light-Up Sakura Viewing

I didn't take a lot of photos during the day today. I was home on the first day of my holidays (which is also Good Friday) so I just wanted to relax and pretty much do nothing. Just one quick snap from Rinko's Seishun 1 Page story:

But tonight (6:00 pm) was my very first Premium Date in NLP+, which was the Light-Up Sakura Viewing. In Japan, it's popular during sakura season (Spring) to go and see them at night - especially considered a romantic date for couples. Many of the public places have special lights installed for this purpose.

When I met Rinko at the little park outside her house, she looked cute. She was wearing a pretty pale-blue blouse but had her hair in the same short style.

We went to Aisha Dining for a meal, where I ordered the Steak Set and Rinko had the same thing. Mmm. During the meal, I chose the "Change Hair Length" feature and asked again for semi-long hair. I think Rinko looks cutest with these styles.  Maybe this time it will work...

Then we walked along together to Fountain Park, where the Light Up Sakura Viewing was being held.

We kissed while we waited for the sun to go down. On this date, I saved up my kisses until I had a total of five, and then took them all together. I guess I was hoping that five successful kisses in a row might trigger the "refrain kiss" option like the old game (where your girlfriend asks for more kisses) - but it didn't happen. Maybe there are other factors involved?

Anyway, here are a couple of beautiful shots from the park during the Light-Up Sakura Viewing.

After the main part of our date, Rinko came back to my place and spent some time hanging out with me. We listened to a CD and played a round of TwinBee (getting the highest score, yay).

And then Rinko proudly headed off for the kitchen and cooked a meal for me.

She made Beef Curry with a little plate of side-salad. It looked good!

I walked her home, and we sat in the little park and exchanged a lot of sweet talk (and a few more kisses).

And then it was time to finally say goodnight. All in all, it's been an exciting and sweet Premium Date.

I probably won't book a date for Sunday this week. Because I have holidays next week, I've decided to book a few After School Dates, and I need to save up my remaining hearts for that purpose.

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.

Rinko's Confession And The First Day ^^

So far, I absolutely love the gameplay in NLP+. In "friend" mode, I managed to change Rinko to the green personality type (my favourite), and then she confessed to me on Day 62. Not bad. I'm happy to say that all the date, skinship and kissing tutorials are there when you go to Real Time Mode for the first time, and they're quite intuitive to play through.

Skinship in this game is wonderful. Difficult to master, and unpredictable - but to me, that's the charm. It's very much like the old DS game - which I love.

Anyway, it was quite late by the time I got around to playing Real Time Mode, so I'd missed most of the activities for the day (which was April Fool's Day, by the way). I called Rinko out for a short date at Fountain Park, and managed to kiss her once.

A feature of the new game is the ability to go back and play through events that you missed earlier in the day by going to the calendar and selecting them. This is cool. I was able to go back and do the two April Fools' Day events. Then there was a special heart event in the 3pm timeslot. It was in the Library, and I was surprised when Rinko asked me a question I'd never seen before. I selected the first option (usually safe when faced with the unknown...but not always).

It turns out (when I checked the calendar later) that she was inviting me for an overnight trip! There's a cute icon of a travel bag on the calendar! Wow. I've booked the event for this coming Thursday, so I'm not sure what will happen. (It must be a school-related trip, because I couldn't schedule it on a weekend.)

And then we finished off the day by walking home from school together.

It feels finally (to me at any rate) that this is the PERFECT version of LovePlus. I think I said yesterday - but I'll say it again now - that once you play NLP+ you'd never go back to the earlier games in the series. Now I don't feel quite so guilty about deleting my 3DS game data and moving on. Everything seems perfect so far.

One interesting side note. I tried LovePlus mode very briefly, and found that there are no more on-screen words that you can click (helpful if you don't speak much Japanese). Like the old DS game, you have to actually SPEAK to Rinko. So I guess there's no getting around it. I'd better brush up in my basic Japanese phrases...

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.

Tuesday

Another happy day with Rinko-chan. I know I've said this before, but the constancy of these simple daily rituals in the game have been a source of encouragement to me lately, when many things in my real-world life and work have been kinda crappy. I'm grateful to Rinko (and the game) for always simply being there for me.

I met up with Rinko in the Library this morning, which is always a pleasant place to hang out.

And walking home from school in the late afternoon sun is romantic.

Finally, I finished up the day at Dixies, just catching up with Rinko and enjoying a quick kiss or two.