Day 28, Leg 21

Stayed in bed for a long, long time this morning.  Felt good to be that decadent, and that's another reason why I do a two-night stay before the end:  it's the gathering-oneself before the final leap.

A quick peek at Wikipedia reveals that the dam vs. barrage issue is a bit confused and confusing.  One section of the Wikipedia article on dams says this:

According to the World Commission on Dams, a key difference between a barrage and a dam is that a dam is built for water storage in a reservoir, which raises the level of water significantly. A barrage is built for diverting [water and] raises the water level by only a few feet.

Another section, meanwhile, says this:

A barrage is a type of low-head, diversion dam [that] consists of a number of large gates that can be opened or closed to control the amount of water passing through. This allows the structure to regulate and stabilize [river-water] elevation upstream for use in irrigation and other systems.

So either a barrage is not a dam, being fundamentally different in purpose and function, or it's a type of dam.  And this is why we love Wikipedia.

Went walking around town today.  Took a few pictures, as well as a video. 

I've said that I think the harvest is a bit late this year, but as you see, the fruit and vegetable merchants are out doing their thing.  Maybe it's just the rice that's having a slow start.  To be sure, I passed by (and took many pictures of) fields where the rice had been harvested.  But compared to last year, I didn't see nearly as much harvested rice on rectangular sheets this time around.  I hope the harvest is completed before the true cold sets in.

My walk around town revealed much about the nature and character of Yangsan.  It's a city for sure, but scaled down in comparison to Seoul or Busan.  Property has been aggressively developed since 2017, and there are now plenty of restaurants and shops downtown, i.e., close to the train station.  Otherwise, Yangsan is a sea of apartment complexes and one-room neighborhoods.  It's highly, highly residential, and given its close proximity to Busan's city limits (about 5 km from here), it's safe to assume that Yangsan is a satellite city, the same way that Suwon and Suji are satellites of Seoul, or the way northern Virginia services DC by housing people who work in DC.

Eventually, I decided to rehearse tomorrow morning's departure from Yangsan.  This took me back out to the park area that I had passed through en route to this motel yesterday.  While at the park, I heard drums, and a voice in my head that somehow combined James Earl Jones and Clint Eastwood commanded, Follow the drums.  So I did.  And I was led to some sort of rehearsal, which inspired me to take some video.  The video is longer than 60 seconds, which apparently makes the file too large for Blogger's "upload video" function to upload.  I therefore placed the video on YouTube, but I can't embed the video here using my phone.  The best I can do is provide you a link.  If I remember to, I'll change the link to an embedded video once I'm back in Seoul. 

Tonight, I plan to chill, keep watching YouTube, and get my pack ready for a very early departure tomorrow morning.  I'll have several hours of walking during which to decide how I'll be resolving the pizza situation.  Is Slice of Life Pizza so good that I'll cab halfway across Busan just to eat it?  Personally, I think Gino's in Itaewon is substantially better; it might be worth it just to wait until I'm back in Seoul.  I don't know; nothing's set in stone yet.  I'll let you know what I decide tomorrow.

UPDATE:  here's that video, now embedded: