On a sunny October day in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, the calm sea reflects an azure sky. Goldenrod blooms on once-barren ground, and a small but gleaming fleet of fishing boats bobs peacefully in the harbor. On river flats where the train station and shops once stood, bulldozers are raising massive earthworks to form foundations for stores and factories.
Nearby, newly cleared hilltops are being graded for housing developments. Buses pull in to the Minamisanriku Portal Center, where "voluntourists" from across Japan come to glimpse the town-that-was juxtaposed with images of the devastation wrought by the 2011 tsunami.
Outside Bayside Arena, hawkers selling local seafood rub shoulders with vendors selling balloons and cotton candy as the air reverberates with taiko drumming. When the drummers stop, their noise is replaced by the gentle thud of wooden hammer and mortar churning out mochi rice cakes and the chatter of the market.