Skiing Adventure at Sapporo Teine Resort
January 1, 2024
SKIING! What fun! I had skied before at Whistler BC and have also been to Kitzbuhel Austria, but tbh, I wouldn’t say I know how to ski per se. I do know how to start and stop and turn a bit? Haha! My husband though has never skied before, so I was keen to get him to try! I’m on a quest to find a couple sport for us. Initially, I wanted it to be diving, but he doesn’t seem particularly keen to be down down down under the sea. So let’s see if skiing is more to his liking (or at least ski resorts with all the beer and wine available is more to his liking haha)
So for today, I’ll walk you guys through my thought process in choosing WHERE to ski, the process of booking skiing lessons, how to get to the Teine Ski Resort, as well as the actual skiing experience itself.
Where to Ski: Sapporo Teine Resort
So obviously whenever people think Hokkaido, they automatically think of Niseko. Tbh, I thought of it too! But Niseko Ski Resorts are pricey, AND Niseko is far from everything! So I feel if we went Niseko, we’d have to spend our entire 4 days there already, or else it would be a waste of time. Well, it was our first time in Hokkaido, and I sure as hell don’t want to spend all of it skiing. So Niseko was out.
Furano was also a consideration. Our friend, who’s an expert skier, says Furano has the best snow for skiing across the globe. I guess I believe him? I mean I have no idea, but in the end, it all boiled down to convenience.
I mean, we weren’t expert skiers. We were true blue beginners, so getting 5 star snow vs 3 star snow wouldn’t matter to us. So with that in mind, I decided to go Sapporo Teine, which was simply 45 minutes away from Sapporo. Super convenient, had a pretty good ski school, all things checked out!
How to book Sapporo Teine Ski Lessons
Wow what a journey! I’ve been religiously checking the Sapporo Teine website for their reservations schedule, but nada. I emailed them too to ask and they simply told me to just keep checking. I mean I get it, they need to check weather conditions first before they can release a class schedule, but it would be nice to know WHEN I should check back.
Honestly, I had given up hope and had stopped checking. Then one night randomly, end of November, I suddenly thought of it, and decided oh why not. So I inputted the link (https://sapporo-teine.com/snow/lang/en/school.html ) and voila! Class schedules were out!
I immediately inputted our details and booked the First Time Ski Experience (Whole Day) for 2 pax. This cost 21,000 yen per person, and was inclusive of:
- 3 hrs ski lesson
- 90 mins in the morning – teaching you the basics of how to put on and take off your skis, proper way to grip the poles, how to start skiing, how to stop, how to carry your skis properly and so on
- 90 mins in the afternoon – actual ski run on Rainbow (the beginner slope). This was good in that we actually got to try an actual run, so it gives you that boost of confidence that you can do it
- Complete ski gear rental: hat, goggles, gloves, jacket, pants, shoes
Upon booking, you need to indicate your shoes size. The safest way to go about this is to measure the actual length of your feet (mine’s 24.5cm), then I added 1 additional cm to account for the socks I would be wearing. It turned out pretty fine, although Josh (my husband) had to exchange for 1 size larger. It wasn’t the shoe size that was the issue, but the ankle fit was rather tight. Anyway, you can change on-the-day, but better to come early if that’s the case so you have time to try on your gear and have it changed if needed. Plus, if your shoes are changed, make sure to have your skis adjusted too as they’re already adjusted for your original shoe size.
The other thing you’ll need to indicate is WHERE you’ll get your rental gear. I suggest choosing Olympia (NOT Highlands). Olympia is where the beginner runs are located. It’s also the more crowded one, but better to be here since you’re a beginner.
One thing to note if you book lessons is that there will be NO refund in case classes are canceled due to poor weather conditions on-the-day. I was a bit worried about this, but thankfully, the weather was great on-the-day we were there, with a snowstorm coming in as we were about to leave.
But for your reference, you can check out this site to know the weather/snow condition on-the-day. It’ll also give you an idea of which lifts and runs are open: https://sapporo-teine.com/snow/gelande-report-en
How to get to Sapporo Teine
Sapporo to Teine
- From JR Sapporo Station, take the JR Rapid train to JR Teine Station South Exit (10-15 mins, 340 yen, can buy tickets from any of the ticket machines at the station)
- From JR Teine Station South Exit, take JR Bus No. 70 to Teine Olympia (16 mins, 380 yen, pay on the bus/prepare exact amount in coins). There are clear signs at the station to get to the bus stop. Teine itself has 2-3 stops, so make sure to go down on Teine Olympia.
Tip: Bus usually operates only a few times a day, so make sure to check times beforehand and take the train that arrives at JR Teine Station BEFORE your preferred bus trip. If you’re here during peak season, allot time for queuing. Keep in mind that you need to arrive AT LEAST 30 minutes before the lesson starts so you have enough time to gear up. There are limited buses to the ski resorts, so better to be early than late.
Tip: If you purchased a JR Pass, check and see if the JR train and bus to the ski resort are included. We checked and our Sapporo-Furano JR Pass included both transport, so yay money sayings!
Teine to Sapporo
- From Teine Olympia, take JR Bus No. 70 to JR Teine Station (16 mins, 380 yen, pay on bus/prepare exact amount in coins). Make sure to check the times because there are really limited schedules available. I initially thought we could always grab a taxi in case we miss the bus, but holy cow, it takes 1 hour for the taxi to arrive when you book. So crazy! Also, the really sucky part is that the bus station is completely uncovered, so you’re waiting in line in the freezing cold and there was a snowstorm at that time. Brrrr. Chilly!!!
- From JR Teine Station, take the JR Rapid Train to JR Sapporo Station (10-15 mins, 340 yen, can buy tickets from any of the ticket machines at the station).
What to Bring to Sapporo Teine
Honestly, you just need to bring yourself and a printed or soft copy of your purchased ticket, cash + JR Pass (if you bought one). Since our lesson included all the ski gear rental, we really could have just walked in and started skiing
Aside from that, I’d say I would recommend wearing contacts on-the-day, as the goggles kept hitting my glasses. I got used to it after awhile though.
Don’t bring too much stuff too, as you’d have to stash them into a locker. The bigger the locker you need, the more expensive it is.
We also decided to bring some snacks – bread and rice cakes to munch on while waiting. There’s a cafeteria where you can buy lunch too, so you’re solved on that front. I thought food was pretty decent – definitely not 5 star, but filling and satisfying. Water was provided for free, so that was nice! But in case you’re craving for beer, they sell them too. Price of the food and drinks were all quite reasonable.
Actual Sapporo Teine Ski Resort Experience
So we woke up bright and early to make our way to Teine. I was quite worried we’d be late, but we ended up arriving 1.5 hours before the actual lesson start time.
This was fine though, as it gave us opportunities to take photos, choose our gear properly (we decided to match our colors hehe), and Josh got to fit his shoes properly and request for a change in size. We even trooped out for a bit to take photos in our ski gear while waiting for the lessons to get started.
All in all, the wait was quite pleasant since the ski resort offered free wifi and free water. We had also brought some snacks with us (purchased from a convenience store the night prior) to munch on while we were waiting. As for our belongings, we got a locker for 400 yen and stashed all our stuff in. The nice thing here is you can actually still grab some of your stuff in the middle of the day through a small opening, without completely opening the locker (and thereby requiring you to pay again). So for wallets, place them near the small opening to make them easy to grab.
Then it was time for our lessons! I don’t have a ton of photos here as I was busy listening to the instructor. But we started out by carrying all our ski equipment to the “practice” area. This was such a struggle. Honestly, Josh and I were worried our whole body would be aching from skiing (especially coz Josh fell 4x!) but to our surprise, only our shoulders hurt, and that was from all the carrying we did. Also, it was likely because we’re seriously unfit haha.
Once we got to the practice area, they taught us how to attach our ski shoes to the skis, as well as how to detach. We were also taught the proper way to hold the ski poles, so they don’t fly off. Afterwards, we started our lesson on how to start and how to stop (PIZZA!). We then took turns starting and stopping on a very very short run (like literally 10 meters maybe?).
Hmmm. I thought this was a good lesson in just teaching you the basics. Honestly, the instructor’s English was sooo bad. I swear, half the time, I felt like I was watching charades. But it was a source of merriment amongst the class where people tried to decipher what exactly he was saying. Thankfully, it’s not rocket science, so we could pretty much infer from his actions what he meant. It was also nice we got to chat with some of our classmates – there was a couple from China, a dude from the US, a girl from Australia, several families from Singapore, and so on. Pretty wide mix.
Afterwards, at 12:00 – it was time for lunch. We trooped off to the cafeteria. Nifty ordering system – you can use either the machine, or order directly from staff. We got the Teine curry (which turned out to be fried sweet potato – pretty good, but wish there was more of them) and Teine ramen (decent but nothing wow), as well as a beer.
Class resumed at 1:30PM, and it was time for the Rainbow run! We all clambered onto the gondola lift, and wow, such a nice experience seeing the world fall away to be replaced by majestic snowcapped mountains. It was really quite nice to see all around you and just see snow snow snow. Very fun.
Once we got to the start of the Rainbow run, I was pretty stoked to start skiing, BUT alas, we went at a super glacial snail-like pace. Couple of reasons for this:
- The instructor wouldn’t let us ski down the steeper parts. I was initially upset with this decision, but when we went back and tried it on our own, we quickly saw the wisdom in this decision because we got wiped out in the first steep run! Still, this meant we all had to carry our skis in these parts and gingerly make our way down the steep area. As you can imagine, this took a bit of time
- We really were a large group! I didn’t really count, but I think it would be safe to say we were at least 20 in the group, with 4-5 instructors. So the student-instructor ratio wasn’t bad per se, but we were all moving as one big group. There was one instructor in front shouting instructions, one instructor at the back making sure there were no stragglers, and the rest were helping out select students who were really struggling. This meant there was a lot of waiting in between skiing. I practiced my STOP a lot haha!
- There were a ton of kids in our group. Don’t get me wrong, it was super nice seeing them fearlessly ski, but they were also the ones most likely to not listen to the instructor, so we spent a fair bit of time waiting for them too
All in all, for reference, it took us around 1 hours 10 minutes to go through the Rainbow run together, but when Josh and I tried it on our own, it took us 15 minutes (including stops of our own already).
After we finished our lessons, we decided to do one more run. We purchased one way gondola lift tickets worth 1000 yen each, and up we went! It was scarier this time around because there was huge winds, and snow flurries were starting in earnest. Our gondola was swaying a bit, but this didn’t dim our excitement (or at least it didn’t dim mine).
Once we got to the top, we were quite eager to do the ENTIRE run, even the steep ones. Errr, yeah they were steep. I was feeling pretty confident actually as I had conquered a steep run before this, but whoa, the momentum here was crazy! I ended up forcing a fall as I couldn’t stop on my own and I was worried I might ski off the mountain. Thankfully, the snow was pillowy soft and didn’t hurt at all.
Ohman, this run was great! We went straight down, and I had a ton of fun practicing my loops and turns. There weren’t a lot of skiers too, so we really got to take our time and just enjoy.
Once we got down, it was starting to snow in earnest and was starting to get quite dark too so we decided to call it a day. Also, we really wanted to make the 5:08PM bus, as the next one was at 6PM which was way too late for us.
At first, I really wanted to wait at the bus stop already at 4PM, since I had heard horror stories of ridiculously long queues, and being forced to wait for the next bus because they couldn’t fit into the bus. But the snow was quite strong and it was REALLY cold. So we trooped back in. I was even game to grab a taxi by then (shocker right?), but we were told it would take the taxi 1 hour to get to us, so we figured might as well wait it out. We finally headed out at 4:30PM but damn! There was a long line at this point and I was SUPER worried we wouldn’t make it. 5:08 arrived and the bus that showed up was already half full (since they cam from Teine Highlands first). Damn, I was worried. Thankfully, another bus appeared immediately after. I was worried this might actually be the 6PM bus, but thankfully it seems the Japanese knew this was already semi-peak season and the 5:08PM bus was the most heavily used bus so they had sent an additional one for us. Thank you Lord! What an adventure!
Overall verdict? Ski lessons totally worth it, especially if you’re a beginner starting from zero. However, if you can afford it, private lessons are the way to go! It will save you time, and allow you to maximize your lessons and runs more. At first, I was thinking if I should have just done the morning ski session only, but I realized doing the initial run with an instructor was really helpful in helping me gauge which slopes might be too steep for me. It also allowed me to try a steep slope with an instructor on-hand first, so that was a nice confidence boost, which allowed me to just have fun and let go during my own run.
Hope this gave you an idea of what to expect when skiing at Sapporo Teine! For other Hokkaido itinerary ideas, do check out my blogs.