Friday...

The general feeling of crapness in my life in the "real world" is unfortunately continuing. I guess it's just one of those times in your life when everything kinda falls apart, and if something can go wrong...it probably will. Oh well. There's always LovePlus, thank goodness.

I had a very pleasant short meet-up with Rin-Rin at Dixies, where we did a lot of chatting...

And here's a dark, moody shot of my dark, moody girlfriend walking home. (Actually, she's only moody part of the time.)

And I finished up the day with a late night meet-up at the Arcade. It's a bright, colourful place with lots of stalls and people, so it helped to brighten the mood of the day enormously.

I'm really looking forward to my date this Sunday, because it's at the Amou Mountain, and it's my first real date at a different location (apart from the Zoo) in the Mountain area. I'm hoping it will be pretty at this time of year, and that my Rinko enjoys herself. I'm sure she will!

Rinko Is Wearing...WHAT??

Well, at lunchtime today I visited the Flea Markets in Fountain Park and bought two things - a Premium Date ticket (for a special showing at the Cinema) and a Silver Ring for my one-month anniversary with Rinko in the new game (which is rolling around in a couple of weeks).

At 3:00 pm, I waited for Rinko to arrive for our Sunday date, expecting the same nice hairstyle and good taste in clothes I've been enjoying from Miss Kobayakawa lately. But no. It wasn't to be. When Rinko arrived at Shin Towano station she looked...she looked...no, I'm lost for words.

This is really a throwback to the "bad old days" of Rinko's clothes in the previous game. Nothing matched. Nothing looked good. And I actually found the courage to tell her so. Last game, I just wanted to keep her happy and so I let her wear anything. No more mister nice guy. Also, that cute hairstyle of the past week was gone, replaced by Rinko's old pixie-cut. It's okay, I suppose - but once again, I said I didn't like it. Rin wasn't too happy that I put her down twice...but hopefully now at least her hair will go back to the way it was tomorrow or later today. And those clothes have really got to go!

I took Rinko to the Coffee Shop for a drink first. Maybe she was in a bad mood after being told how much her fashion style sucked, but she wasn't happy about going there. (And it's usually our new favourite place to go.)

I detect a wry smile on Rin's face in the next shot. Sometimes, I get the feeling she's like a little kid, and she tries to test me out and see how far she can push things just to test me out. What do you think?

And, looking at these eyes in the next shot, she's definitely up to something...

Our main date was at the Zoo, where I took Rinko to see the lions. At least she enjoyed THAT part of the day. Wow, having a girlfriend is a challenge.

After the Zoo I had an option to continue the date, so I took Rinko to the fancy Lakeside Restaurant. It's the nicest place to eat in the Mountain Area.

But I have to say I felt a little embarrassed taking Rinko to such a fancy place, dressed the way she was. Oh God.

To prove my point about the clothes, I just had to take a full-length shot at the end of our date. I really hope I never see Rinko looking this this again!

On the good side of things, Rinko called me this afternoon to rave about how much she loved the food at the Lakeside Restaurant, and how much she would love to go back there.

Tuesday

Today was a busy day, starting out with a long but interesting episode of Rinko's "Seishun No. 1 Page" story. Rinko and her band ("In The Rye") are starting to rehearse for their first live performance at the Live House. The most obvious thing you'll notice in these shots is the change-over to winter school uniforms in Towano today (the 1st of October). These uniforms are dark blue with long sleeves.

In the proper game it was raining, so Rinko was waiting to meet me with her umbrella and walk me to school.

Luckily the showers had cleared up and there were blue skies by lunchtime, so Rink had lunch with me on the school roof. She'd made another bento for lunch...without the cute face this time.

She even shared some of her bento with me. How cute!

And this afternoon, she walked me home from school as well. I really can't get enough of Rinko-chan with this new hairstyle. I'm going to let her keep it for as long as possible.

Here's an extreme close-up:

Now that it's Autumn, the trees at the Shrine have bright orange leaves - and there are a lot of falling leaves, too. It's very romantic.

I've booked a date for Rinko at the Zoo this Sunday at 3:00 pm. Oh yeah, and I finally reached Level 4 in the 3DS game today. Yay!

In my DS game with Manaka, I finally went to the Shopping Mall and bought a gift for her birthday, which is coming up this Saturday. I bought her a pretty formal dress, so I hope she likes it. I've been playing with the orange Manaka for almost a week now, and I'm enjoying the old game with the English patch very much.

After-School Date

Today got off to a wonderful start. When I saw the picture of the corner near my house (with the sunflowers and the red mailbox), I knew that Manaka would come to meet me and walk to school with me. And I was right!

When Manaka appeared in her uniform, with a pretty pink bow, and smiled at me, I felt so overwhelmed. She's a really lovely girl. I'm sure I've commented about this before, but the really amazing thing about the LovePlus games is their ability to evoke a genuine emotional response from the player. You really do feel the wonder of new love when you play. ^^

Walking to school with Manaka and holding her hand is a delight. I especially love the chibi-Manaka figure she has on her schoolbag...

The next few photos are from today's chapter of the "Seishun No. 1 Page", where Manaka appears quite embarrassed by the attention she's getting at Tennis Club from the new young girl.

During the morning, Manaka call me up and booked a date for Sunday at 9:30 am.

Then it was time to play through my very first after-school date. This is a special kind of date, where you call your girlfriend during the morning timeslot using the usual "book a date" option, but then you make the date for the same afternoon. I tried to book it for around 5:30 pm (when I usually finish work in the real world), but that was too late, and Manaka wouldn't accept anything later than 3:30 pm.

Problem. But as luck would have it, I was able to finish work early today, so I would have time to play through the date. And I'm sure glad I did! I guess when I thought about having an "after school date", I kinda expected something quick and easy on the way home from school - but boy, was I wrong. Even though I used only two hearts in each attribute, it turned out to be a MEGA date, with all the trimmings, and took almost an hour to play through. Doing it at work might have been...embarrassing. And impossible.

The date was full of surprises, too. First up, Manaka met me sporting a new hairstyle. I don't like it that much, but I was keen to get rid of her default hairstyle, so I told her I liked it. Hopefully she won't go back to the default. Second, she seems to have switched to the "kawaii" (cute) style of clothing, which looked really nice. I have to say that Manaka has great taste in fashion, especially compared to poor Rinko. Her Alice in Wonderland shoulder-bag was a nice touch, too - and I adore her hat.

So, with the preliminaries out of the way, we headed off for a bit to eat. Sadly, there's not a lot of options around Shin Towano yet, so good old Winning Burger (Fast Food) was our only choice. Oh well, Manaka likes eating there.

We ordered the Hamburger Set and got the Hot Dog Set instead.

Don't make this face again, Manaka! It's too darned cute!!

Our date location was the Mountain Zoo. We visited the small animals (petting zoo), which Manaka liked very much.

I was surprised again (with only two activity hearts used up) to have the option of a second date location! So I took her across to the Amusement Park and visited the Haunted House, which she also loved.

And then, at what was supposed to be the end of the date...Manaka invited me back to her place to meet her parents. I only had one shot left on my camera (damn! damn!), and it's not a great one, but it shows how beautiful Manaka's house looks on the inside. She certainly is a little princess...

We played through the study date. First time answering three questions right, Manaka made tea and a cake for me. Second time, she changed into an unbearably cute pink lolita outfit and wore her hair in two ponytails. I died when I saw her! And third time was the intimate photo session. T_T Have to make sure I save some photos next time.

Even after all that, Manaka wanted me to stay longer...but I was exhausted by then, and had to refuse. But wow, what a big date. It was my first real date with Manaka, too, and it's one that I'll always remember. Now I just have to work hard to build up my stats and unlock a few more date locations before my next date on Sunday.