Now that both the plum and cherry blossoms have gone, it's time to make way for the spring season's third incarnation of white flowers - Japanese Pears (or, nashi, in Japanese).

I knew I had a pretty full plate today, so I made myself get up and out of the house an hour early so I could stop by one of the pear farms near my house and wander around for a bit; there's something I want to bring up before I get to the rest of the photos: One of the best parts of living in Japan is that when I stop in at local farms to take pictures, the residents have always been genuinely friendly, patient, and more than willing to put up with my inane questions. That said, one reason they're happy to do so is that I exercise extreme care when on their property.

There are a couple of rules I follow. I never touch anything without permission. I never cross any boundary lines (e.g. walking into a fenced off section of land). And, most importantly, if they tell me to leave (which has never happened) or "no photos please" (which has happened a few times) I absolutely respect that and do what they say.

I want to bring this up now because I've seen a lot of posts on various social media recently where someone blatently ignores a sign or worker to stand in the middle of a delicate or dangerous environment, just to get a picture. I get it - we all want that special photo, but sometimes you just have to let opportunity go by. Especially if it means interfering with someone else's livelihood.

Sorry to rant, but I feel like it needed to be said. Anyway, on to the rest of today's photos.

These are the pear blossoms. The trees have to have support to grow as wide as they do, which you can see as the network of wires below the blossoms and branches.

In the photo below, you can see how much space is left between each tree trunk. It looks like it would be a fantastic place to play or picnic, but, unfortunately, the trees are a little bit too delicate for lots of that. The only time people are really allowed under the canopy is during picking season. Many farms will allow you to take as much as you can carry for only a few thousand yen. It's a good time.

Here is the same clump of flowers as above, but slightly pulled back so you can get a better sense of the spacing of the trees and the width of their branches.

This is the top of the branches. You can see a large, rolled-up mesh net extending from the top-right to the middle of the picture. Once the weather warms up a little more, the nets will be unrolled to protect the trees from insects, wind, and pollution.

Finally, elsewhere along my commute, you can find this windbreak tree (not sure what kind) outside an abandoned orchard. Unfortunately, these abandoned orchards are all too common. Young people need to head to the cities to earn a decent living and the farmers are turning into senior citizens, which makes it hard to maintain an orchard properly. That said, I'll bring you back here in a couple of months and the yellow flowers will be gone but the tree will be oh-so-green.