Sad. A 600-year old wooden structure gone just like that... Unbelievable.Am copying the words of my friend Graham, as he expressed how it would have gone down if it had taken place in Japan: "Amazing that they didn't have some sort of super fire-fighting system thing in place. I can imagine the Japanese having some sort of super-duper apparatus that would flood the whole thing in 10 seconds flat at the first hint of fire. Or would have secretly rebuilt it without using anything flammable, yet having it still resemble 600 year old wood. Actually, if it were in Japan, it probably would have burnt down hundreds of years ago, and have been rebuilt post-war in ferro-concrete...." We both agreed that if this happened in Japan, that the one held responsible would definitely commit suicide in disgrace. I took it a bit further saying that he'd do it old school--sword to the gut.
Koreans felt that it was like watching a good friend go down in flames. For me, it felt like a distant relative that I never met but got to know through photo albums and stories of other relatives.
