We went from the UK, as part of an Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation (EEFIT) mission, to study recovery after the 2011 Tohoku tsunami. This was a major disaster for Japan. For the country most prepared for earthquakes this was a shocking event that will take years and trillions of dollars to repair. Fifteen months after the disaster, when we made our field trip, recovery was already underway. New embankments were being constructed along the coast of the Sendai plain in Miyage Province and debris had been collected into huge sorted piles. But further north, in Iwate Province a debate was raging between the safety conscious who wanted to construct high embankments and those who wanted to maintain their intimate contact with the shore and sea. I went to Kobe and Kyoto to visit engineers in earthquake institutes. I went site seeing and was beguiled by Japanese architecture and landscape.