I was working in my home nation (Japan) as a draftsperson when I was invited on a long weekend ski trip. 

So up to Yonezawa we went, and met our ski ‘Sensei’. Our Teacher ‘Sensei’ ran a small independent ski school in his mountain guest house. I’d enjoyed skiing so much that I arranged to go and become an apprentice / chalet aid in exchange for food, board a ski pass ski lessons. After an initial training period, I was out on the snow teaching guests during the day then cooking for and serving them in the evenings before sharing a bottle of Sake (Japanese Rice wine).

Eventually I decided to go see and ski in Canada where I soon became qualified and employed as an instructor, and started following seasons for a while until we landed here in Les Gets. Since we established Switch, I’m based more behind the scenes, helping to ensure that everything runs without a hitch to make sure that my ski time doesn’t get disrupted. 🙂 ‘