Lessons from Japan’s surviving buildings As you drive west to east, close to the shoreline in what was the little beach town of Arahama, south of Sendai, Japan, you pass acre after acre of houses and stores and trees flattened by the otherworldly power of the tsunami that struck on March 11. These days, the massive clean-up job continues apace. Roads have been cleared and the cars and trucks and boats that were tossed like Tonka toys …