From a ski perspective our luck ran out today, as high winds continued to bedevil Hokkaido ski areas. In the case of Sapporo Teine, virtually all of the off-piste terrain Black Diamond utilizes is accessed by the closed upper Summit lift. So we got 4 hour tickets and cruised around the lower terrain for awhile.
Teine was the site of the slalom and GS events at the 1972 Olympics, and here is the caldron that had the Olympic torch.
As at Kokusai the vast majority of skiers were uniformed local students in P.E. classes. Is there a less appropriate ski region in the world for skis like this?
There is a summer amusement park on site.
I pretended to schuss a buried section of roller coaster.
Mattias actually skied a little bit of this one.
There was a short section of low angle untracked birch forest below the amusement park. Here’s the kids’ area at the bottom.
There’s a nice view of Sapporo and the Sea of Japan, for which we caught a short sunny break.
We left at 12:30 after a modest 4,700 vertical and went to the Hokkaido Jinga Shinto shrine, built during the late 19th century Meiji era.
Shinto gates:
Mattias inscribes New Year aspirations on this “graffiti table.”
In the late afternoon we wandered through some Sapporo department stores. Liz liked this advertising for a new Japanese movie.
We had dinner at Beef Impact, where Liz had an excellent Australian filet and I had a Wagyu sirloin. The latter was 1000 yen per ounce, but that’s a good deal vs. when you occasionally see Japanese Wagyu in the U.S.
Mattias took us from the Quintessa hotel in Sapporo to the train station at 6AM for us to get to Chitose airport. We were very impressed by Mattias and his excellent service with Black Diamond Tours. He said the “Happy Ending” Sapporo tours vary a lot by customer request. Some people want to focus on the skiing while other are more interested in tourist attractions at the end of their Hokkaido trips. We leaned more in the latter direction as the skiing was spectacular while were we in Niseko, and thus we were worn down some by that plus the weather was less cooperative at the end of the trip.
Teine was the site of the slalom and GS events at the 1972 Olympics, and here is the caldron that had the Olympic torch.
As at Kokusai the vast majority of skiers were uniformed local students in P.E. classes. Is there a less appropriate ski region in the world for skis like this?
There is a summer amusement park on site.
I pretended to schuss a buried section of roller coaster.
Mattias actually skied a little bit of this one.
There was a short section of low angle untracked birch forest below the amusement park. Here’s the kids’ area at the bottom.
There’s a nice view of Sapporo and the Sea of Japan, for which we caught a short sunny break.
We left at 12:30 after a modest 4,700 vertical and went to the Hokkaido Jinga Shinto shrine, built during the late 19th century Meiji era.
Shinto gates:
Mattias inscribes New Year aspirations on this “graffiti table.”
In the late afternoon we wandered through some Sapporo department stores. Liz liked this advertising for a new Japanese movie.
We had dinner at Beef Impact, where Liz had an excellent Australian filet and I had a Wagyu sirloin. The latter was 1000 yen per ounce, but that’s a good deal vs. when you occasionally see Japanese Wagyu in the U.S.
Mattias took us from the Quintessa hotel in Sapporo to the train station at 6AM for us to get to Chitose airport. We were very impressed by Mattias and his excellent service with Black Diamond Tours. He said the “Happy Ending” Sapporo tours vary a lot by customer request. Some people want to focus on the skiing while other are more interested in tourist attractions at the end of their Hokkaido trips. We leaned more in the latter direction as the skiing was spectacular while were we in Niseko, and thus we were worn down some by that plus the weather was less cooperative at the end of the trip.
