My good friend Kathrin invited us to see the end of the fall leaves up at Jokoji Station in December. Near this station there is an old abandoned railroad that makes for a beautiful walk with the hills surrounding you.
We walked through some really cool old railroad tunnels. We brought along Dean's buddy, Parker, and he and Dean were really spooked when the speakers played a very realistic train whistle as we walked through the dark tunnel.
Poor Parker, I thought he might not recover from the scare!
Dean was very excited about this headlamp that Kathrin loaned him for the tunnels.
We found a nice little rope swing that the kids all loved, of course.
Mike carried little Yuki on his back--we have got to get one of these baby backpacks. Yuki was so content the whole time!
Skye really loves to be held, and this day was no exception, but she did walk by herself for a bit on our long walk through the trees.
Sadly, the railroad path closes pretty early--sometime in the afternoon--so we couldn't stay for long. We headed to a park up the road and let the kids run wild for a bit as the sun and the temperature dropped quickly.
This was my first time using my brand new lens--my first every long lens! It's a Tamron 70-200mm zoom lens. So actually, it's my first zoom and my first long lens. It's been really fun to play around with it. I used it for the session I just blogged before this--the Permana Family at Nagoya Castle--and for a few shots at the Yamamoto's Shichi-Go-San ceremony.
I love it! So far it's everything I dreamed of. It's been easier than I thought to get used to a zoom lens, and really fun to have that versatility. And I absolutely adore the compression.
Jokoji station was a nice little trip, gorgeous scenery, and very close! I would love to go back during Sakura season.