Perhaps one of the most anticipated parts of our honeymoon in Japan was the ski lesson in Sapporo, more specifically at Mount Teine. Neither J or I have ever skied before (that time during a middle school trip where I “skied” for one hour doesn’t count) and a lot of people are shocked – how are you Canadian but haven’t skied before??? Well uh…I just haven’t? Sorry for disappointing you as a Canadian!
But now I can say that I have skied…in Japan! C’mon, one of the main reasons people go to Hokkaido in the winter is to ski, so we had to seize this opportunity. A brief search for info led me to the web site of the Teine ski resort. A bit of background here – Sapporo hosted the Winter Olympics in 1972, and some of the skiing events were held at Teine. Today Teine is popular among locals and tourists alike, and the Sapporo Teine ski center offers a variety of skiing and snowboarding lessons for people of all ages and levels. Best part is that it’s only a 15-minute train ride from central Sapporo. Done deal, we were going to Teine for our first REAL skiing experience!
J and I opted for the one-day beginner’s lesson for 17000 yen per person. It was recommended over the half-day lesson by many reviews, and we figured that we went all the way there anyway, so we might as well get the full experience. Off we went for a lot of crashes and falls…
A shuttle bus (not free) took us from the Teine train station to the Olympia Ski School. There was snow aplenty, alright, and in fact it was snowing as we were on the bus. The careful reader would notice that the clock reads approximately 4:35 in the photo – no we were not there that early. This photo was taken at the end of the lesson, while we were waiting for the 5 pm bus to take us back to the train station 😉
When we arrived at Olympia, I was surprised to find that there were lots of schoolchildren! They seemed to have their gear ready to go and they looked like they knew what they were doing more than we did. We were told later on that kids in Hokkaido go skiing quite often in the winter as part of their school curriculum, so they get training and exposure to the sport at a young age. Supposedly Japan has had quite a few Olympic skiing medalists too!
We had made a booking well in advance (price included gear rental) and as soon as we got to Teine Olympia, we headed for the rental area where the staff fitted us with gear that was our size. This includes skis, poles, boots, ski wear (jacket and pants), gloves, beanie, and goggles. Took a while to put everything on, and walking in those boots certainly made me look like a wobbly doll…!
Ahem, yep, I think we were ready…? Looking badass and ready to take on the world, one mountain at a time, starting with Teine. Little did I know how many times I would almost break my bones when I stepped into the falsely gentle snow…
Well at least J looked happy here as we started our morning training session. We were a group of approximately 20 people (some were only there for the half-day lesson so the group was much smaller in the afternoon) with four staff members, including one instructor. The morning session consisted of simple lessons of basic techniques and manoeuvres. We got the hang of how to handle our skis and poles and practised skiing down a small slope several times.
Not sure what I was doing here or whom I was talking to, but you can see here that the snow had no sign of stopping, at least not in the morning. By the end of the morning session I must have fallen at least three times due to my inability to control my movement and RELAX! J seemed to be doing pretty well – zero falls in the morning, impressive!
The lesson continued in the afternoon after a long lunch and we were headed for a 1.7-km (if I remember correctly) beginner’s downhill trail to test our skills. Exciting! On the way we saw these kids who, once again, knew exactly what they were doing and were probably going to take on the expert hills or something. I’ll stick to my beginner course, thank you very much!
No photos of my actual falls and crashes were taken, but believe me, there were quite a few instances where I was positive that I lost a tooth or broke a bone. I often lost balance and was too nervous to react, and the staff even had to come rescue me and reset my skis several times! Sorry guys! As a result my body was hella sore the next day and I felt like someone had punched me like a sandbag. The pain was NOT pleasant, but it was a necessary part of any learning process, especially a physically demanding sport. Then again I also never learned to properly skate, probably for similar reasons…oh well! Overall still a very fun experience, as you could see from my happy face here…probably just after getting up from a crash!
At the end of the lesson J decided to relax in his own way – by chilling (literally?!) in the snow?! Aren’t you cold, sir? Seems like something I’d do as a child in Canada, rolling in the deep, fluffy snow 😀
And here is one of the friendly staff members that accompanied our lesson, Stephen. I actually got a selfie taken with all four staff members, but my phone DIED right after and the photo ended up corrupted! I was unable to get them all together again after the lesson ended but I managed to catch Stephen before he left. We talked for a while and I found out that Stephen comes from a skier’s family in California, and he’s been in Sapporo for five years. Lots of sharing of stories, and J and I were so thankful for the help that Stephen offered during the lesson, especially at the beginning when I didn’t know how to put on my gear!
To end this post (and the entire Japan honeymoon series) I present you this photo of a badass-looking bald guy (can’t see his face but you can tell he’s badass) with the cutest backpack ever. It was so adorable that I wanted to go hug him – the backpack AND the bald guy. It actually amused me greatly and for a moment I forgot about the pain in my body 😛
And that’s it, folks, the end of the 7-part series on my honeymoon with J in Japan! It was such an unforgettable trip for the beginning of our marriage, and we certainly hope that this wouldn’t be our last trip to Japan 😉 If you want to catch up on the previous posts in this series, go for a click: part 1 – tidbits of Hakone; part 2 – snow in Hakone; 3 – brief stop in Tokyo; 4 – little Otaru; part 5 – food in Otaru; and part 6 – exploring Sapporo. Till next time 😉
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Annie Bananie en Europe 