Welcome everyone to the start of our new Tokyo Mothers Group blog!  It's been many years since we last had a blog for our members to enjoy and get value from.

We will be starting with TMG Mums Spotlight, where we'll be interviewing different women in our TMG network - many of whom you may have already heard of through their work and support that we are all in this motherhood journey together in Tokyo!

For our first instalment, we present to you Bex Kelly - a popular Tokyo-based Yoga instructor and mother of 2!

1. In one sentence, how would your closest friends describe you?

I felt compelled to ask them instead of putting words in their mouth! They said: Warm, compassionate and highly optimistic.

2. What is your family weekend ritual?

We take it in turns to wake up with our 2.5yr daughter at 6.30am, and usually by 9am we all have cabin fever and ready to get out.

We love going for family breakfast at BluJam Daikanyama, Mercer Brunch Roppongi or No.4 Cafe in Ichigaya. We love a good breakfast since a trip Australia a few years ago... Aussies do it best!

For everyone’s sanity, my husband and I usually take it in turns to do something for ourselves. My husbands goes for a run and sometimes takes an hour to call friends back home, read or journal. I typically like to get to Deus Ex Machina coffee shop for yoga class on Sunday mornings.

3. Whats your no.1 top trick for getting through a hard Mum day?

Ask for support. There’s never a hard day that I don’t text a friend and get a chat in. For me, sharing and chatting out the hard stuff is the ultimate release of tension.

4. What gets you up each day?

Gratitude for the fortunate healthy life I’m living

5. What keeps you up at night?

I get really excited and inspired about how to motivate other mothers to feel their best. I sometimes have a brainwave idea for an event, a yoga flow, or a nice meditation and I need to scrawl it down in the middle of the night.

6. How has TMG helped you?

When I’m at a complete loss, I’ve often asked for advice on TMG. I also met some of my first friends in Japan within the group. I’m a believer in mothers needing their village, and TMG has provided exactly that for me in Tokyo.

7. What challenges or benefits do you face being a parent in Tokyo?

Having lived in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong before, I can safely say I’ve never lived anywhere so clean and safe and so perfectly equipped for going to the bathroom with a baby or toddler! My birth experience in a Japanese hospital was also very positive and nurturing. So far the challenges are very few and far between.

8. Anything else you'd like to share.

I learnt from an early age from my parents a really helpful piece of advice that I always use. No matter what challenge presents itself to you, instead of saying “why me?” say "thank you." There’s a lesson hidden in even the hardest moments.