Looking for red leaves

On Saturday, Ayako and I went with our friends Eiki and Ryoko about an hour and a half north of Hamamatsu to an area called Shirakura valley. We were hoping to find some fall leaves changing colour even though we knew this year was a bit later than usual. Here's us walking down to the valley: It was a nice wooded area and river we walked along in the valley. There were some nice bridges and waterfalls as well: Finally, we were able to find some red leaves:

And Ayako found a nice house she wants to live in:
On the way back home, we stopped at a campground that made fresh buckwheat noodles (soba) in a little restaurant. We got to watch the process and then get to eat some:
Outside the restaurant, we met a friendly cat who loved being pet (and also drinking from the river):