Atami Resort Lets Young Japanese Men Spend Weekend With Their Virtual Girlfriends [Augmented Reality Steps Up Gaming Experience For Gamers on Vacation]

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In what may be the biggest “wait, what?” moment I’ve had lately, I’ve discovered Atami, a resort in Japan that caters to players of a Nintendo DS game called Love Plus that will allow you to be photographed, real time, with your in-game girlfriend. Thanks to the miracle of augmented reality, Japanese gamer guys are flocking to a seaside resort, ignoring regular women, and getting their pictures taken with girls from their favorite game.

They’re called dating sims and they’re widely favored in Japan as a way for the otaku culture to get some social interaction with girls without freaking out and running away. Either them or the girl in question…but anyway, the resort known as Atami is offering special areas–like near a bronze statue of Kanichi and Omiya, lovers in a story set at Atami–in which you can photograph yourself with your choice of girl from Love Plus.

The tiny square you see in this shot is a barcode that, when read by a camera with augmented reality capability, causes an image of the girl to appear in the shot, with whoever’s standing there with her. Other such locations will feature the ladies in various clothing options, and some reports said that the gamer horde was ignoring a beach full of actual women not far away in favor of the photo sites.

Needless to say, most people find this a delicate combination of alarming and sad, but for the fans of Love Plus, they’re eating it up.