Students in many districts across Japan brushed off their uniforms and shouldered their bookbags for the first day of the new school year on Wednesday.
But while most were worried about meeting their new teachers or what their class schedules might be, some were facing the threat of nuclear contamination or the loss of former classmates.
In Tokyo, a group of students evacuated from the Fukushima area began the school year in a new city and a new classroom.
Keisuke Takahashi, 7, is one of several children staying at a youth center in Japan's capital as their parents in the north work or take care of worse-off family members.
"I just got a letter from my mom," he said. "It says that she is hurting because we're separated. But she says don't worry, we will go home together after the nuclear power plant settles down."
"I haven't got used to the life yet, because I have to live separately from my mom," he said walking into the Minamisuna Primary School. "I miss her."
Up in northern Japan, where the worst devastation from last month's tsunami occurred, the new school year has been delayed several weeks. Dozens of schools were wiped out or too badly damaged to reopen in Miyagi prefecture.
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