Kaon Omori peeked into her classroom in the Japanese town of Kurashiki, gawping at evacuees forced from their homes by devastating flooding and landslides that have killed 179 people.

"In the classroom, all the desks and chairs have been moved to the sides, and people I've never seen before are staying inside," she mumbled.

"It's really weird," the 12-year-old said, touching her bobbed hair.

Authorities ordered as many as five million people to evacuate their homes during the record rains that have cut a swath through parts of central and western Japan.

And nearly a week after the rains began, with clean-up operations well under way, more than 10,000 are still stuck in shelters like the Okada elementary school in Kurashiki.

Among the hundreds of people at the school were former and current students, like Omori, a skinny sixth grader with a passion for volleyball.

She looked bemused at the transformation of her school, its gym now hosting neat rows of blue mats for displaced people to sleep on.

Japanese students change into indoor shoes when they enter their school buildings, but her designated shoe box was now stuffed with rolled-up clothing, intended for some of the hundreds of evacuees staying at the school.

Around noon, clutching her mobile tablet, she joined her friends in line for a bowl of cold noodles and two rice balls for lunch.

- Classes cancelled -

Despite the unusual circumstances, the school remained quiet and orderly, with its new residents removing their shoes before entering their temporary home.

Families got together to designate people to stay at the school and look after their children so the adults could get back to their flood-damaged homes and begin the clean-up work.

In the school yard, dozens of vehicles were parked, and aid workers streamed in continuously carrying donations.

Military vehicles delivered water, and medics pushed in wheelchairs for old people lying on the floor of the gym, classrooms or the nurse's office.

Okada school and its 222 students would ordinarily still have been in session, with the summer holiday not scheduled until July 19.

But the under the circumstances, principal Takashi Kano said it would be closed at least until the end of the holidays in late August.

"Nothing is decided beyond that," he told AFP.

The school's students and its 24 teachers and staff were all safe, he said, but many found their homes badly damaged by flood water that submerged the entire ground floor.

"Ordinarily, our goal at Okada Elementary is to raise the academic performance of our students, and educate them to be the types of people loved by the community," Kano said.

"But this is not the time. All our efforts now are being devoted to caring for the people who are here."

- Dreaming of a hot meal -

Despite the modest conditions, evacuees said they were simply grateful to be safe and have a place to shelter.

Pressed, some acknowledged they would like a hot meal, and perhaps a designated place for women and girls to change.

"There is no place to hide, really, except for places like bathrooms. It's hard on girls," said Hiroko Fukuda, 40, mother of an Okada Elementary student.

Her 11-year-old daughter stayed at the shelter for a few days but eventually started refusing food and is now staying with her cousins.

"But we can't complain," Fukuda said. "All of this helps."

For Yusuke Yoshida, sheltering at the school was a chance to revisit childhood memories.

"This is the first time I've been back in 30 years," the 43-year-old said, lying on the gym floor.

He had spent the last two days working to clear the flood-hit home he shares with his parents and a brother.

The ground floor was completely submerged by flood water by Saturday morning, and the family survived by moving to the second floor until Sunday morning, when they were rescued by troops on a boat.

"I am happy to receive rice balls. There is no way we would complain," he said.

"But the other day, volunteers came and prepared fried noodles. Oh, the taste of a freshly cooked, warm meal. That was amazing."

Survivors of deadly Japan floods face uncertain future
Kurashiki, Japan (AFP) July 10, 2018 - As Tomie Takebe looked at the ruins of her flood-ravaged home in the Japanese town of Kurashiki, she struggled to say whether she would ever live there again.

Record rainfall that unleashed devastating floods and landslides has killed at least 156 people in Japan, and many of those who survived face an uncertain future in homes and towns transformed beyond recognition.

Takebe, 67, was in the Mabi district of Kurashiki in Okayama prefecture, which was partially engulfed by flooding that has now receded, leaving a thick layer of silt as a sign of where the water once was.

"I don't know what to say," she said, as she looked at the damage to her two storey home, its contents jumbled together and caked in mud.

"My fridge, everything... It's all covered in mud," she said, as relatives helped her bring items outside.

She moved around trying to work out how to clean up, but with no running water or electricity, the task seemed impossible.

And with her life turned upside-down, thinking much further ahead was a struggle.

"Maybe I'll move and live with my sister in Osaka," she said.

"But I'm not sure. I'm focusing on cleaning the house for now. I'll think about the future later."

- Rumours of looters -

Emotions were running high throughout the tight-knit community, where some neighbours kept in touch with each other during the disaster, messaging constantly to check on each other's safety.

Rumours circulated about looters or thieves targeting homes, and residents shouted at some outsiders as they moved around the neighbourhood.

On a main road, work crews had moved debris to either side of the street, lining the road with a trail of crushed and toppled cars and fallen trees.

Streams of water were still flowing like shallow rivers in some area, and everywhere there was mud left behind by the floodwater.

On one road, convenience store workers dumped expired drinks into a drain, while nearby a fish lay on its side, drying in the sun.

Hirotoshi Ohta, 50, a construction worker, was at work and said the company had lost more than a dozen trucks to the floods.

The firm had sent out some of its remaining concrete mixer trucks to bring ground water into the area to help the clean-up work.

But it was unclear how normal business could resume, Ohta said.

"We don't know what to do," he said.

"We are a construction firm, but we don't have our trucks."

"We're freaked out and at a loss," he said, as he cleaned a sand-covered parking lot.

- 'I am not alone' -

Fumiko Inokuchi, 61, was sorting through the ruined remains of the first floor of her home, carrying a picture of her children in baseball uniforms.

She was at home by herself on Saturday, after her husband went to work, when she realised flood water would soon trap her in the house.

She escaped across the road to a three-storey care home for the elderly, and watched in horror as the water gradually consumed the bottom floor of her house.

She and her neighbours were at the care centre until Sunday morning, when soldiers in boats rescued them from a second floor balcony.

Chatty and cheerful despite the tragedy, she nonetheless welled up as she described her home.

"I got married here, and we built this house two years afterwards. We raised our three small sons to adulthood here, there are so many memories."

But she has resolved that any insurance money she gets for the house, which she renovated only a few years ago after taking out a loan, will not go to reconstruction.

Instead she wants to give the money to one of her three sons, so they can repair their own homes, and she hopes to move in with them.

"I am alive. I believe human beings are very strong. Resilient," she said, tears filling her eyes.

"I am not alone in this situation. All of my neighbours are in the same position. All of Mabi is the same."

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A desperate wait for news after deadly Japan rains
Kumano, Japan (AFP) July 9, 2018
In the devastated Japanese town of Kumano, Kosuke Kiyohara sat quietly, watching rescue workers push through the debris of battered homes and waiting for news of his missing sister and nephews. "I have asked my family to prepare for the worst," the 38-year-old said quietly, sitting across from a house that had been ripped apart and tossed on its side by a huge landslide. "I haven't been able to reach her phone since Friday night." Dozens of people remain missing across parts of central and ... read more