Adam Pretty / Getty Images

Chocolate, a miniature dachshund, receives acupuncture therapy from veterinarian Satoshi Okada to help with lumbar disk herniation, at the Marina Street Okada animal hospital on April 12, 2013 in Tokyo, Japan.

Adam Pretty / Getty Images

Veterinarian Satoshi Okada prepares the acupuncture needles before treatment. The number of pet dogs in Japan has been increasing steadily to 11.5 million animals, almost one-fifth households. One-tenth of Japanese families have at least one dog, according to the survey of Japan Pet Food Association.

Adam Pretty / Getty Images

Vanilla anxiously watches as Chocolate receive his acupuncture therapy.

Adam Pretty / Getty Images

Being treated with acupuncture means the dogs can often avoid having surgery for certain ailments and degenerative injuries common to their particular breed.

Adam Pretty / Getty Images

The dogs receive acupuncture and laser acupuncture in a small room at the back of INS Dog store to help with ailments such as lumbar disk herniation, knee joint dislocation, and also to fix the flow of Qi energy and enhance their self-healing power.

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Google via AP

A screenshot made from the Google Maps website shows stranded ships left as a testament to the power of the tsunami which hit the area, near a road in Namie, Japan.

Google via AP

A crushed building in Namie, a nuclear no-go zone where former residents have been unable to live since they fled from radioactive contamination near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant two years ago.

Google via AP

Google's camera-equipped vehicle moves through Namie in a photo released on March 27, 2013 and taken earlier in the month.

Crumpled homes, abandoned shops, empty streets. The town of Namie has lain virtually untouched since its residents were evacuated two years ago, following the accident at the nearby Fukushima nuclear plant.

On Wednesday they were able to see their town again thanks to Google, which began offering glimpses of Namie on its Street View service. The town's mayor, Tamotsu Baba, invited Google to document the current state of Namie after receiving numerous requests from constituents who wanted a reminder of their home town.

Although some restrictions on entering the town have been lifted, Namie's 21,000 former residents have not yet been allowed to return to live there due to the still-high levels of radiation.

In a message posted on the Google website, the mayor said he hoped that sharing the images with the rest of the world would serve as a reminder of the consequences of a nuclear accident.

Related:

Nuclear refugees visit their home near stricken Fukushima plant

Fukushima: Before, during and after

Inside the Fukushima exclusion zone

Google via AP

Google via AP

Shizuo Kambayashi / AP

A child and father enjoy the cherry blossoms at the Chidorigafuchi Imperial Palace moat in Tokyo on March 24.

Slideshow: Signs of Spring

Arie Kievit / EPA

Warming weather and longer days bring out the first signs of spring.

Launch slideshow

Toshifumi Kitamura / AFP - Getty Images

Police officers search for tsunami victims at a mud-covered field near the Okawa elementary school in Ishinomaki city, Miyagi prefecture, on March 11, 2013.

Yoshikazu Tsuno / AFP - Getty Images

A police officer searches for missing people in a wrecked vehicle at a beach in Namie, near the striken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, on March 11, 2013.

Kyodo via Reuters

A man prays to mourn victims of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami as a ship brought ashore by the disaster is seen in the background, in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, on March 11, 2013.

By Arata Yamamoto, Producer, NBC News

TOKYO -- Japan marked the second anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that swept through northern Japan, damaging more than one million homes and killing almost 19,000 people.

A moment of silence was observed at 2:46 p.m. local time on Monday at various locations where the scars of the disasters still remain.

While most of the debris has been cleared, progress has been extremely slow in redeveloping areas affected following the tsunami-triggered explosion at Fukushima Daicihi nuclear power plant. Read the full story.

Shizuo Kambayashi / AP

Women take part in a moment of silence in front of what is left of a disaster control center in an area devastated by earthquake and tsunami, in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, on March 11, 2013.

Kimimasa Mayama / EPA

Two women take a moment to offer a prayer for the victims killed by the tsunami on the sandy shore at Arahama in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, on March 11, 2013.

Kyodo News via AP

Two pictures of a so-called 'miracle pine tree', on March 27, 2011 (left) and March 11, 2013 (right). The 88-foot-tall tree, a single survivor among 70,000 trees in a forest along the coast in Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture, has been artificially restored in a project to preserve it.

Slideshow: Triple tragedy for Japan

An earthquake, a tsunami, a nuclear meltdown -- residents of Japan's northeast coast suffered through three intertwined disasters after a massive 9.0 magnitude temblor struck off the coast on March 11, 2011.

Launch slideshow

Related:

Rare tour of Fukushima reveals colossal decontamination efforts

'Nuclear refugees' visit their home near Fukushima

Inside the Fukushima exclusion zone

Franck Robichon / EPA

Wearing white protective masks and suits, Yuzo Mihara, left, and his wife Yuko pose for photographs on a deserted street in the town of Namie, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, on Feb. 22, 2013.

Franck Robichon / EPA

A single house remains standing in an area wiped out by the tsunami near Ukedo port in the town of Namie.

Until two years ago, Yuzo Mihara and his wife Yuko lived quietly in the Japanese town of Namie. Yuzo ran a store and Yuko a beauty salon. But their lives were upended on March 11, 2011, when an earthquake and tsunami crippled the nearby Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. 

Yuzo and Yuko are now among over 100,000 Japanese 'nuclear refugees', having had to abandon their home when the town was evacuated due to the nuclear alert.

European PressPhoto Agency photographer Franck Robichon followed the couple as they made a brief visit to their old home last month. They were able to collect a few belongings and clean the house, which had been invaded by mice.

Franck Robichon / EPA

Yuko Mihara enters her house, where the floor is littered with books and furniture.

Franck Robichon / EPA

Yuko Mihara offers prayers to her ancestors in front of a family Buddhist altar inside her house.

Franck Robichon / EPA

Yuko Mihara cleans her kitchen, which is covered with debris and putrefied food.

Franck Robichon / EPA

Yuzo Mihara cleans the couple's house, which has been invaded by mice.

Located within the 20-kilometer exclusion zone, Namie saw its coastal area wiped out by the tsunami and its inland zone contaminated by radiation. Most of the town's 21,000 former residents still hope to make a permanent move back in the future, but for now they are only allowed to return for a few hours to minimize their exposure to radiation.

Wearing white protective masks and suits, former Namie residents have to drive through Okuma and Futaba, towns where the radiation levels are so high that a future return is inconceivable. 

Most of the former residents of the exclusion zone are still waiting for proper compensation to be negotiated with the government and TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima plant. Two years have passed since the disaster and frustration is gaining ground in the community. Cloistered in cramped temporary accommodation, the evacuees face an uncertain future. The stigma of being seen as 'assisted persons' by the wider community only adds to their despair.

Franck Robichon / EPA

Yuzo Mihara carries garbage out of his house.

Franck Robichon / EPA

Yuzo Mihara looks at a collapsed house in his neighborhood.

Franck Robichon / EPA

A destroyed house in the abandoned town of Namie.

Related:

Fukushima: Before, during and after

Inside the Fukushima exclusion zone

Slideshow: Triple tragedy for Japan

Okuizumo Government via AFP - Getty Images, file

A replica of Michelangelo's Renaissance masterpiece sculpture David at a public park in Okuizumo, Shimane prefecture, western Japan, in a photo taken by a local official on Aug. 28, 2012.

Agence France-Presse reports — A replica of Michelangelo's Renaissance sculpture David that was erected suddenly last summer is unnerving residents of a Japanese town, with some calling for the naked masterpiece to be given underwear.

The 16 foot tall marble statue was donated by a businessman who hails from the area around Okuizumo.

"It is the first time we have had anything like this in our town. Perhaps people were perplexed," town official Yoji Morinaga said.

Related:

Much-mocked pope statue gets a makeover

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Yuya Shino / Reuters

Japanese women in kimonos walk during heavy snowfall at Toshimaen amusement park in Tokyo, as they attend a ceremony celebrating Coming of Age Day, Jan. 14, 2013. Youths across Japan are honoured with special coming-of-age ceremonies when they reach the age of 20.

Koji Sasahara / AP

A man crosses a pedestrian bridge in the snow in Tokyo, Jan. 14, 2013.

Franck Robichon / EPA

Pedestrians cross a large avenue as heavy snow falls in Tokyo, Japan, Jan. 14, 2013.

Kim Kyung-hoon / Reuters

People clear snow off a road, next to a car stranded in the snow, in Tokyo, Jan. 14, 2013.

Tokyo had its first snowfall this season today.  A blanket of snow made for pretty pictures but difficult commutes. Flights to and from the capital's Haneda airport were cancelled, parts of expressways closed and local train services delayed. 

Watch the video report below.

Slideshow: Winter's frozen splendor

AFP - Getty Images

Ice and snow changes our environment, as winter engulfs our world.

Launch slideshow

Toru Hanai / Reuters

Kiyomura Co's employees push a cart carrying a 222 kg (489 lbs) bluefin tuna outside Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013. Kiyomura Co's President Kiyoshi Kimura, who runs a chain of sushi restaurants, won the bid for the tuna with a record of 155.4 million yen ($1.76 million) at the fish market's first tuna auction this year.

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Kim Hong-ji / Reuters

Kim Chang-geun, right, 57, a member of an anti-Japan civic group, stabs himself in the stomach with a knife during a rally at Gimpo Airport in Seoul on Jan. 4, 2013. The rally was held to denounce Japan's conservative new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and demand an official apology for Japan's war crimes during the World War II.

A South Korean protester stabbed himself in the stomach at an airport outside Seoul on Friday during a demonstration ahead of the arrival of a Japanese government official, Reuters reports. The injured protester was taken to hospital.

South Korea's president-elect Park Geun-hye said that Japan needed to come to terms with its colonial history as tension simmered over Japan's past rule of Korea and an island dispute. 

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a December 31 interview he wanted to issue a statement that would supersede a landmark 1995 apology for Japan's military aggression, a move bound to raise hackles in South Korea, ruled by Japan from 1910-1945, and in China, where bitter wartime memories run deep. Read the full story.

Ahn Young-Joon / AP

Bleeding protester Kim Chang-geun, center, who tried to hurt himself with a knife, is escorted to an ambulance by plain-clothes policemen during a protest against the visit of a special envoy sent by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. South Korean President elect Park Geun-hye will meet with the delegation on Friday in her first diplomatic test.

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