The boat that was dumped on the roof of Otsuchi's two-storey hotel has gone, and much of the rubble that littered this fishing port has been cleared. But the town lies paralysed, unable to rebuild and unwilling to abandon.
Up and down Japan's tsunami-ravaged coastline, roads have been repaired and are now busy with cars taking people back to the prefabricated units they have learned to call home in the last year.
Devastated communities are gradually limping back to life, emerging from the ghostliness as new street lamps illuminate the night, lighting the way to clusters of small restaurants, shops and drug stores that have sprung up. In towns like Ofunato, the crumpled houses that lay strewn across the road and the battered shells of cars that littered the pavements are gone. Telegraph poles have been righted and the detritus of daily life has been cleared. (AFP)