What a lovely series this is Henry! I like the latest addition to it also, and the story about the waraguro.
Reminds me of my own youth, when we still had those haystacks in my own country. I hope the Japanese don´t follow suit there!
Very, very nice!

So interesting - the bamboo forests are amazing and it's good to see other places and people in the world. But what a shame for the old people struggling to cope with the snow on their own

Pat

These waraguro are fairly common in the Japanese countryside, but the shape varies a bit. Japan is an interesting mix of very modern and quick to pick up new fads/electronics/etc. and at the same time often maintaining and keeping alive old traditions. Of course, there is some of that everywhere, but it seems to be even stronger here. I used to watch a Japanese TV program called Soko ga Shiritai (I want to know about there) that aired originally in the early to mid 1990s, I think:

http://www.ovguide.com/tv/soko_ga_shiritai.htm#

The program would visit places in Japan, talk to interesting people, discover out of the way places and lives, etc. A bit of a potpourri. I always was fascinated at how serious, diligent, and dedicated so many people were to all kinds of crafts, trades, and skills and how valued their old way of making things by hand were that could much more easily these days be made by machine and with automation or by taking shortcuts.

Back to the waraguro though. I was not sure if waraguro was the generic name for these things that come in various shapes and sizes around the country or if they were the specific name for the ones I saw at Uwa in December. Some Japanese people I asked here didn't know either, but today a man in his 70s told me that it is the generic name. He also said that the reason they are conical with the shape of a roof on top is to help repel rain so that the straw inside can stay dry.



Yes, you should do that. As you know though it is very time consuming and a lot of work. I like using digital cameras so much more, as long as getting the image into digital format is the goal.

Last August I was back in Austin and got my old Minolta Scan Elite scanner out and scanned hundreds more slides and negatives. I have several thousand scans done all together over the last 13 years, but just doing a few every few years when I get the chance and have the motivation. The reason it is so much trouble for me these days is that the scanner uses a SCSI interface and I no longer have a desktop to use with my SCSI PCI card. About 2001 I bought a SCSI PCMCIA card to use with my laptop, but laptops these days don't have a PCMCIA slot. The only computer I have that still has one is an old WinXP laptop with a 1ghz Athlon, 512mb ram, and 40gb hd that I bought in 2002. The control key doesn't work on the keyboard and it only has USB 1.1. I have a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card that I can use to transfer files to an external hd at a reasonable speed and the laptop has 2 PCMCIA slots, but they are stacked slots and the USB 2.0 card is too thick to allow it and the SCSI card to be used at the same time. So, I have to do 64-bit scans (16-bit each for RGBI) to the internal hd and after I have a bunch I then have to disconnect the scanner, connect the external hd, and then copy the files over. Slows things down a lot. The computer doesn't work so well and one of these days it will be dead or unusable. The scanner still works like a champ though and since I use Vuescan I don't have an issue with no drivers for later versions of Windows. I suspect that if there was a way to connect it to my Win7 laptop that I could use Vuescan and still scan with it. I have heard of SCSI to USB adapters so I should look into that the next time I am in Austin. Of course, depending on the cost it might just make more sense to buy one of those not too expensive Pacific Image scanners that has the infrared channel like my Minolta. I have already scanned most of the film I really care about though so I would prefer the cheapest way, which is probably just finding an adapter.

In the last few decades this photo is the style we typically see in the U.S. This is in Texas and my recollection is that I took it in the late 1970s. I remember that I stopped the car on the side of a country road to make a standing head call (as opposed to a sitting head call). While doing so I found that I liked this scene so afterwards I got the camera from the car and took this photo. Maybe you can make out the rolls of hay. When I was a kid though we didn't usually see this style. Sometimes we would see haystacks and often small, rectangular bales of hay.



I recall seeing a green field with bales of hay in, I think, Montana several years ago on a road trip and I took some photos. I don't have any of them on my website so I have been searching for them, but no luck so far. I keep all my digital photos in monthly folders and usually I can find a particular photo pretty quickly, but this time I have been frustrated by not being able to. I really should finally use some photo db software and create good keywords. I am looking at that sort of thing these days.

Very nice series. Especially like the bamboo photos (both with and without snow)

The rolls is what I see usually in my home country (The Netherlands) and France now. Sometimes, on small surfaces, I still see the rectangular bales too. I liked the haystacks though, it´s ideal playground for kids. Much to the despair of very angry farmers, of course, so it´s not a surprise they found something else. Still, I regret they´re gone.
I would be in a pain to say for Switzerland in fact, I guess I never paid attention. Probably rolls too now, I´ll check next season.

To be honest, those Japanese haystacks are really amazing. With their way of seeking perfection in every labor, they really look beautiful in their own way. Much more than what I saw when younger in Europe. I hope to visit Japan for the first time but on a very long trip in the next two years, am already enjoying it up front.

Thank you again for sharing!

I think these big rolls are made by machine, but it isn't just because it is easier and less labor intensive this way, I think. I think that the tight rolls help keep moisture out better than the old way. Probably for much the same reason the Japanese still use their traditional, quaint, beautiful way of making theirs.



Interestingly, I did a Google search and found a photo of some haystacks in Romania that looked sort of like these in Japan. I also found some old paintings with somewhat similar haystacks:

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/monet/haystacks/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Claude_Monet._Haystack._End_of_the_Summer._Morning._1891._Oil_on_canvas._Louvre,_Paris,_France.jpg



I hope you can do it. I am sure you will enjoy the trip and there are many great photo opportunities in Japan. The exchange rate for the U.S. dollar is horrible these days, worst in history, and the rate for the euro is not good either, but a lot better than the dollar. I first visited Japan in 1985, but just for a couple of weeks with a JR rail pass. I then returned with my backpack for 9 weeks in 1988 with JR rail passes and traveled all over. Great fun!

I actually saw one of Monet´s (at Orsay IIRC). Love impressionism in fact.

Thank you! Backpack or something like that and rail passes is what I intend to do - I don´t drive anymore - hopefully for at least as long. My only concern is about language, not speaking any current in Asia. I hear though English leads a long way there too.

I should have paid more attention. You are Swiss so you use the Swiss franc, but current exchange rate with the yen is probably not so good either. Still, Japan is probably not any more expensive than traveling in Europe for you.

You don't want to drive in Japan. The JR rail pass is the way to go. You can get 1, 2, and 3 week passes and I have used them many times over the years. They are only available to tourists so Japanese can't buy them and foreign residents in Japan also cannot buy them. I would love to have a 3-week pass right now. You can use them for all JR trains, which is almost all the long-distance trains, so you can easily travel all over the country. They can also be used for JR buses and ferries, but there aren't all that many of them. Also, you can use the pass even for the Shinkansen (bullet trains) although in recent years some of the newest, fastest Shinkansen trains are excepted, but that isn't a problem because you can still use the pass for most Shinkansen and they are also very fast. Trains in Japan are comfortable and the pass entitles you to a reserved seat at no additional cost. With the pass you can, of course, just get in a train and sit in an unreserved seat car, but if you have the time you can go to the JR counter/office in the station and reserve a seat. In the old days I would just get on a train, but in the last decade or so I usually use the pass to get a reserved seat.

Don't be worried about language. I traveled in Japan in 1985 and 1988 for a total of 11 weeks with a backpack and traveling on my own. I learned maybe 2 or 3 words (konnichiwa, domo arigatou) and got by. In those days there much fewer signs in stations and elsewhere in English, but I was okay. Also, the train platforms have the station name usually written in 3 ways: kanji, hiragana, and romaji (using the western alphabet), i.e., 東京、とうきょう、and Tokyo. That helps a lot when the train stops and you look out the train window trying to figure out if this is the station you want to get out at. For a first trip to Japan you can probably go to just about all the places you want to go using JR trains. In 1988 I occasionally had to take buses to get to places where there was no train and that was a bit more difficult, but I managed okay. The thing to keep in mind is that you don't really need to be concerned about finding yourself late at night in some dodgy place you really don't want to be. No matter what time of night and no matter where you find yourself you are going to be fine. You aren't going to run across thugs and other low-lifes while in Japan. If you get lost, take the wrong train, walk somewhere you didn't intend to walk to then that is one thing you never have to be concerned about. Also, most of the time people will be very happy to try and help you get back on track. Many may be reluctant and embarrassed to try to use English with a foreigner, but often younger people are less so because they are either currently still studying English in school or it hasn't been as long since they have.

Anyway, if you have any questions or anything else I would be happy to try and answer them.

As it happens, I grew up in a small farming town, and the switch from rectangular to round bales happened (mostly, anyway) while I still lived there. I asked once about why they'd switched, and got an earful.

The short answer is that round balers are cheaper, faster, and (most of all) much more dependable. At least from the way the farmers talked, any given day of using a square baler would probably include at least a few minutes fixing some of its excessively intricate machinery. By contrast, round balers apparently run for years without any work beyond routine lubrication and such.

On the other hand, round bales don't protect the contents better as a rule -- in fact they're generally pretty wasteful. The main thing that happens with baled hay is that the outside dries out and turns to straw. Rectangular bales were normally built into stacks that preserved all by a thin layer at the outside of the stack.

Round bales don't stack so neatly, so even if you stack them (few do) a layer on the outside of each bale dries out. Because of their size (and weight) they're rarely stacked at all though -- they're usually just left where they come out of the baler until they're needed.

I'm a new member to the Forum -and you might like to see some styles of hayrick used in Kumaon, India - in the foothills of the Himalaya.

Hi Turps,

Welcome to the forum. : )


Interesting and different ways of stacking hay from India. Life at the feet of the Himalayas must have amazing photo stories.

Thanks for sharing,

Yildiz

Sure we do and a big welcome to the forum.

Welcome to the forum Turps, and some nice view of Indian haystacks Looking forward to more of your pictures.

Welcome to the forum! Those are really cool photos and it is very interesting to see how hay is stacked in Kumaon, India. Thank you for posting. This rather esoteric subject of haystacks has turned into an interesting topic. If anyone else has photos of hay or haystacks anywhere then please post them here.

I have traveled a lot, but surprisingly I haven't yet been to India. Usually my trips happen at almost the spur of the moment when I get the urge to travel. I typically leave within a couple of weeks of deciding to go and a month at the outside. Unfortunately, the process to get an India visa takes time and several times when I thought I might go I discovered that there wasn't time. A couple of years ago I was all hot on going to India, but I was in the middle of a 4 month trip in Japan and it turned out that for an American traveling in Japan it was complicated to get an India visa. It would take more than a month. I decided to go to Egypt instead since I could get a visa at the Cairo airport. I hope to go to India someday though.