A Japanese man has married a character in a popular video game, taking her -- and his handheld game console -- on an overseas honeymoon¹.

近日，日本一名男子与一款十分流行的视频游戏中的女主角结婚，并带上“新娘”（当然还有便携掌上机）去海外度蜜月。

An image of the bridegroom. A Japanese man has married a character in a popular video game, taking her -- and his handheld game console -- on an overseas honeymoon.

The man, who prefers to use his online moniker 绰号，名字 SAL9000, met character Nene Anegasaki while playing dating simulation game模拟游戏 "Love Plus."

They got married a few weeks ago, broadcasting their ceremony live on Japan's version of video-sharing website Youtube.

SAL9000, who did not want to reveal his real name for fear of being misunderstood, admits to be an "otaku御宅族," a breed of Japanese youth obsessed² with video games, computers and fantasy worlds.

"In the Japanese otaku or nerd呆子 culture, there's a tradition of calling characters my wife, and I sort of thought of Nene as my wife. Since I was calling her that, I thought we'd just have to get married then," he told reporters.

"If more people were to find ways of expressing themselves like this, I think it would make society a bit more interesting."

The newlyweds, who went on a honeymoon to Guam关岛, now go on dates around Tokyo, with SAL9000 taking pictures of Nene, installed in his Nintendo DS, in front of famous landmarks³ and then posting them on social networking sites.

As the game "Love Plus" has voice recognition software, SAL9000 says it's possible to have a sort of conversation with Nene or even play simple games such as rock, paper, scissors.

He also has vowed⁴ to have and to hold, for better and for worse, even if another, updated version of the game is released.

"I think I'll probably continue playing Love Plus. I won't cheat," SAL9000 said.