'Rainbow' village emerges from tsunami's sea of mud in Rikuzentakata, Japan

It's hard to miss the first completed buildings to appear on Rikuzentakata's weed-infested landscape since the tsunami ripped through the small city in northeastern Japan in March 2011.

On the city's deserted coastal plains, a collection of small wooden chalet-like structures, each one painted a different colour of the rainbow, stands out on the desolate terrain.

The bungalow village project was the brainchild of Katsutoshi Tomiyama, a former computer systems expert turned jazz cafe proprietor, whose home and business stood on those same grounds before the tsunami swept them away.

His plan is to offer the cosy cabins as accommodation to visiting volunteers as a way of repaying them for their support since the earthquake and tsunami, which killed more than 2,000 Rikuzentakata residents - 10 per cent of the total fatalities in the devastated Tohoku region.

"The disasters really altered my view of the world," said Tomiyama, 71. "Almost 10 per cent of this city's population lost their lives, but I was one of the lucky ones. I decided I wanted to give something back while I still can."

Luck is a word that seems out of place in Tomiyama's vocabulary. After 38 years in the hotel industry, mostly as a computer systems developer for the Tokyo-based Prince chain, the Fukushima native moved north in search of a slower-paced lifestyle.