Sadly, the reason my ex-husband picked up our son before me wasn't that he was concerned about his safety; he just wanted to harass me because he was mad that I'd blocked him on Twitter and he couldn't DM me. I'd totally forgotten about that. His workplace was close to his house, so he went home, got in his car and picked him up.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant had a hydrogen explosion the following day, and there were still numerous aftershocks. I didn't have a car when I was in Tokyo, so I asked my ex-husband to drive our son to my apartment, fearing that the rail services could be interrupted again at any time, but he said he'd drive him to the closest station from his house. I rushed out and asked him to wait there. Unbelievably, however, he let our son, still in elementary school, board the train by himself in the midst of all that chaos. On top of that, he ignored my message and deliberately misdirected me and my son.

I went to the closest station from his house in vain and returned to the closest station from my apartment, where my son was anxiously waiting for me. That's how, after more than 24 hours since the earthquake happened, my son and I finally got together.