Japan still finding its feet, one year on At Senso-ji temple in Asakusa, Tokyo's most well-loved tourist spot, people clap their hands, throw coins in the offering box, waft incense over themselves and stare up at the city's latest landmark, the Sky Tree, a soaring television tower, currently the tallest of its kind in the world. When I was here last year, right after the earthquake of March 11, there were no tourists and the bankers had fled. It was dark and sad, much of the neon turned off. Everyone was subdued, conscious of how compatriots up north were suffering. Now it's pretty much business as usual. The subways are a little chilly (electricity-saving measures), but the neon is blazing again. And tourists are making their way back. Not as quickly as many here would like, though. Usually the Oriental Bazaar, on one of Tokyo's glitziest streets, would be packed with Westerners stocking up on kimonos, lacquerware, Japanese paper and antiques, but on a cold March day business is slow. "It's off season still," says the shop's manager, Yukiyoshi Ide. Cherry blossom time in April is the peak for tourists; that's when they should start flooding back. After the earthquake, people were concerned about radiation. We are a long way from Fukushima [the nuclear plant that suffered a post-earthquake/tsunami meltdown], but to Westerners it's all Japan. Those who have come are not worried. "The earthquake was only a year ago, so there's not much chance of another," says Kristian Tomblin from Devon, who came to run in the Tokyo marathon. Craig Newton and Kerri Ryan, from Melbourne, Australia, are visiting their son. "My background is occupational health and I know that for a short visit - 20 days - the radiation risk is negligible," says Kerri. "If you can spend money and help the country recover from what has been a tragedy, that's good," says her husband, Craig. Visitors may not be worried, but Tokyoites are still shocked after the quake and are readying themselves in case of another. When the quake struck last year, public transport stopped and many people spent seven or eight hours walking home. Now people wear flat shoes or hiking boots, not high heels, and carry water and biscuits. Some have bought bicycles. There has also been a boom in engagements and weddings. The earthquake has been a sharp reminder that life is short. Kyoto, 300 miles south-west of Tokyo and 500 miles from Fukushima, barely felt the quake and is a long way from the radiation zone, but travellers stayed away from there, too. A year on, tourist coaches are lined up outside the gates of Nijo Castle and Westerners hang around the lantern-lit streets of Gion, photographing maiko (trainee geisha). "International visitors are returning," says Ken Yokoyama, general manager of Kyoto's Hyatt Regency Hotel. Like the cherry blossom, nature has a way of bouncing back even after the most difficult of years.