Autumn traditions - cosmos picking!

Way back when I first came to Japan, one of the many "culture shocks" I had was learning, the hard way, that you are not supposed to pick flowers in Japan. My Irish friends and I stopped to pick some flowers, that looked wild, for our homestay Mothers. Something that is not a problem in my home country (Ireland), but as I learned that day, is frowned upon in Japan. A lady soon came along to reprimand my friends and I. That night I asked my homestay family about it and they told me that there are only rare cases when you can freely pick flowers, even wild ones.

Two years later, when I first visited Singapore, it was not so much of a surprise to learn that you can't pick flowers there either. But they have a huge sign in the airport and at several places around the city, that convey the 'rules' or manners of Singapore, including no flower picking. Having lived in Japan long term and travelling around Asia, it no longer offends me, but when I first came to Japan, I thought it was so strange and cold that you couldn't pick wild flowers without either paying and / or permission from the owner of the land. 

So when I found a cosmos field that welcomes people to pick the flowers for free, it became a tradition of my family to pick a bunch of cosmos there each year! I have since found several other fields that allow free picking too, but we always go back to the first one I found. They put signs up when its okay to pick, pictured, generally once the flowers have reached full bloom. Have you picked flowers in Japan? Did you pay or was it free?