Sam from the United States and Lianne from the United Kingdom initially moved to Iiyama City in order to start practicing a “self-sufficient” lifestyle. The two came to Japan as English teachers, but they love skiing and snowboarding and longed to live in snow country.
There aren’t many places in the world where an average person can afford to live right at a ski resort and have a plot of land, also with convenient high-speed links to an international airport via Shinkansen. The couple realised that life in iiyama City would be a dream come true for them, and bought the small rundown cottage at Togari Onsen Ski Resort that would eventually become Togari Cabin. “While renovating our own house, we grew vegetables and kept goats and chickens.”
As time went on, Sam and Lianne were able to create good connections with their neighbours and enjoyed participating in local events. They were confused as to why the Togari village that they loved so much seemed overlooked by international tourists. So when approached by a neighbour to buy his family’s old ryokan, they realised they had a chance to help in the regeneration of this pretty little ski town, and share the charms of Nozawa, Togari and Madarao with people from around the world, and so began Hunters Gate.