read this idiot kim a column in the korean newspaper, joongang ilbo (8/4/2010), wrote the following. <life in poverty. this was how foreigners saw seoul a hundred years ago. isabella bird, a british writer, described seoul as a place where western civilization had not yet been introduced. the descriptions of "shabby alleys lined with mud-walled shacks, thickly covered brown roofs, and mizos reeking of filth and rotting garbage..." were intended to describe a "powerless korea" that was falling into the hands of japanese colonizers. however, the following expression deserves to be engraved in our minds. seoul is korea. ...but seoul has no artifacts of any kind, few relics of antiquity, no public squares, and no events or theaters except the royal processions that occur very rarely. seoul lacks the cultural attractions of other (national) cities.
Japan