Only in Japan.  Last year, a Japanese man married his virtual girlfriend, a character from the popular “Love Plus” franchise, and took her on a honeymoon with him.  Now, other “Love Plus” fans are getting to go on honeymoons with their virtual girlfriends, thanks to an unprecedented tourism campaign by the resort town of Atami, which has turned “Love Plus” into a much-needed economic boost!

Atami has teamed up with Konami Digital Entertainment, the company behind “Love Plus,” to outfit the town with augmented reality, or AR, bar codes that work with the DS or iPhone versions of “Love Plus.”  Basically, it allows players of the game to interact with their virtual girlfriends in a new environment, from taking pictures with them by a statue (by scanning a bar code on the statue) to spending time next to their digital girlfriend in bed while she wears a sensual summer kimono (by scanning a bar code on the bed at the Ohnoya hotel).  The rest of the town has jumped into the fray, offering a wide variety of “Love Plus”-themed goodies, from food items from the game to souvenirs of the digital vacation.

“In conventional love games, you went up stages to make a virtual girl fall in love with you, so that she would accept you as a boyfriend or express her love for you,” said Konami spokesman Kunio Ishihara in describing his company’s game.  “But players of “Love Plus” are in a scenario where they are a high school boy who is already dating one of the virtual girls.  The goal is to see how good you can be to her and to build a relationship.”

Tags: virtual girlfriends, Love Plus, resort for men taking virtual girlfriends on vacation, Atami, Japan, augmented reality, Konami Digital Entertainment, resort caters to video game fans, unusual vacations, unusual resorts

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