To add to your comment on the transience of historical buildings, the Ise Jingu shrine gets torn down and rebuilt every 20 years, and this has been happening fo

To add to your comment on the transience of historical buildings, the Ise Jingu shrine gets torn down and rebuilt every 20 years, and this has been happening for 1300 years! http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-japanese-shrine-has-been-torn-down-and-rebuilt-every-20-years-for-the-past-millennium-575558/ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-japanese-shrin... Also, according to Freakonomics, Japanese houses are "disposable", commonly torn down and rebuilt. http://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-are-japanese-homes-disposable-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast-3/ http://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-are-japanese-homes-dispo...