Since those long-ago days, eating turkey and drinking red wine on Long Island with my girlfriends, I have lived in four different countries and three continents. For me, the Thanksgiving Day celebration has deepened and broadened over the years… friends, family and dreams all pile in to one big fat day full of good vibes and good food. 

As an ex-New Yorker, I have had a brand new handbag swiped off the back of my chair in a London hotel, a mobile phone snatched off of a posh restaurant table and my family home in Switzerland broken in to while my children were sleeping upstairs. Losing my mobile phone in the centre of Tokyo - a shocking revelation ensues. 

Coming from Switzerland, we are very used to snow. Everyone drives four-wheel drive automobiles, the trains and trams leave and arrive on time all winter long and families own multiple shovels. I cannot remember school ever being cancelled in the years we were in Zürich. That is why the past twenty-four hours have felt like a magical holiday for us.

I believe that we should all have a bucket list, or three. You know the saying that hindsight is always twenty-twenty? In a (very) weird way you are creating that retrospective look into your past.

This it the first piece I wrote when I arrive in Tokyo. It was written for and published on Discover Out Loud. For me, it is an important barometer. I refer to it often to check myself...am I being true to me, have I changed my perspective.....?  It is a good map through this time of discovery. 

Amongst the glamour of Ginza, I felt almost happily small-town, wandering around a shopping mecca which turns into a small village two days a week.  

And, although street performers are strictly forbidden, Cleo didn’t let that stop her. She rocked a Venetian mask the whole afternoon - a crowd pleaser, indeed!!

You can take a class, research on the Internet, get advice from locals - but whatever, however, you should have a plan. It is not fun and it is an scary topic, but here's what we've done to prepare ourselves. How does this compare to your plan?

I feel the need to write, to capture these moments, to explore my more creative sides. Moving to Tokyo has started a journey - and this is my space to capture that journey.