Haiku ambulance

On the sideline of his dental practice in Seoul, Rhee has published thousands of haiku, minimalist 17-syllable poems, in Japan.

"No sooner do Koreans eat sushi or buy Japanese chocolate for their kids than they bad-mouth the Japanese," Rhee said. "Both Koreans and Japanese are too narrow-minded when it comes to dealing with their neighbors. How are we going to catch up and compete with Japan without studying Japan?"

Rhee is a regular at the Seoul Haiku Club, where since 1993 about 20 Koreans and Japanese living in Seoul have met twice a month, to read and write haiku.

—Choe Sang-Hun, "Japanese Poetry Endures in South Korea," IHT