Yamato Tanooka, the 7-year-old boy found Friday in a hut at a Self-Defense Forces training facility in southwest Hokkaido six days after he went missing, has said that he lost his sense of direction because he cried so much after his father ordered him to get out of the car. He apparently headed in the opposite direction of the car, sources familiar with the case said Sunday.

Because he was scared of the mountains, he continued to walk along the road until he reached the SDF training facility where he was later found. The door was unlocked so he went inside to sleep and avoid the cold outside, he was quoted as telling his father and others.

Tanooka told his father he did not see anyone during the six days he was missing. According to other sources, the boy said he stayed at the shelter because he thought someone would eventually find him.

After six days of drinking only water and eating no food, his lost 2 kg, Before his ordeal, he weighed 22 kg, sources said.

Also on Sunday, police said they notified the Hakodate child consultation center about the incident on Friday as the boy may have been psychologically abused.

The latest case also showed how hard it is to predict the actions of children, experts say.

“We searched for places where children would likely go,” said a senior police officer at Central Hakodate Police Station, which has jurisdiction over the town of Nanae where Yamato Tanooka went missing on May 28.

Tanooka was found inside a shelter where SDF officers taking part in exercises stay overnight. There is a tap outside with running water, but no food. SDF officers who happened to drop by before taking part in Friday’s drill discovered the boy inside the hut. If they had not found him, it could have cost Tanooka his life.

Rescuers initially searched an area with a radius of 3 km from the spot where his parents told him to get out of the car as punishment. They eventually widened the radius to 15 km, but went in the opposite direction of the SDF hut.

“Considering the strength and mind of a child, we thought that he would not head to the mountain tops or off the road,” said a firefighter who was part of the rescue team. The road heading to the SDF facility is bounded by forest and goes uphill.

The distance Tanooka is assumed to have walked is about 10 km.

SDF officers sometimes feel they need to be equipped with survival gear when they travel on that road.

When a Kyodo News reporter walked along the same stretch of road around 5 p.m. on Saturday — exactly a week after Tanooka was left behind — the light began failing among the tall trees even though it was before sunset. After walking for two hours, only two vehicles passed by, apparently driven by locals. No pedestrians were seen.

On Tuesday, three days after Tanooka went missing, rescuers started searching the area uphill from where the boy was last seen. The next day, SDF vehicles went near the training facility.

However, since anyone heading to the SDF facility needs to follow animal trails into the forest for about 50 meters, the rescuers did not search further.

“It’s not totally wrong to assume that there are limited places for a child to travel compared to adults with knowledge and physical strength,” said Yuji Ishikawa, who heads a group of mountain guides in Hokkaido, “but we also need to keep in mind that children might go to places out of the norm.”