Sapporo Teine (Highland Ski Center) — Attraction in Sapporo

1. Half of the beginner runs are flat, there are people literally taking their skis and boards off and walking through them. I've never experienced that on a slope. That basically means 50% of the beginner slopes are not really slopes, but flat ground you can walk through. Also, the slopes are not clearly marked - would it be too much effort to make sure your signs point to the correct slopes and make sure the start of the run is clearly marked with its name and difficulty?
2. The rentals are borderline theft - 10,000+ yen for skis, boots, helmet & goggles, and the equipment is poor. The boots are uncomfortable, the goggles steam up all the time and have low quality visors on them, the helmets feel cheap and made out of basic materials. For the price, this is unacceptable. For context - in top ski resorts in Europe you pay 3,000 yen for high quality equipment. The pass here is 6,000 yen and the rental is 10,000 yen (for poor equipment and a staff with an indifferent attitude). There is no way that rentals should be this expensive. Find some shame Teine, you greedy people.
3. The organisation of transportation to and from the mountain is unacceptable. There is a single public bus which takes you there. There is a rush hour at around 5pm just after all the lifts have closed and everyone needs to go back to Teine station. There is 1 bus here every hour for hundreds of people. Not only is this poorly organised, but it's incredibly dangerous - people could be left stranded on the mountain. The local authorities should fix this so that during rush hour there is adequate transport to get the high paying customers off the mountain safely.

I would not recommend Teine unless you have a car and your own equipment - otherwise you will pay 16,000 yen for an incredibly average...

Had a one day first timer ski lesson here. There were 3 english speaking very kind instructors taking care of a group of 20 people. The first half day (1.5 hour) you will be taught the basics of skiing in the school private area. You will learn how to put on and take off the ski, how to stop/slow down when you need it, and you will try to go down a very small hill in turn with others. After lunch, you will get on the gondola and you’ll take the rainbow course down, around 2 km long. For several first hills you will take turns to go down a slope so that the instructors can take care of you and give you advices on how to improve. In the middle you will take a break and hike a pile of snow and sit on top to take picture and eventually slide down. We finished at around 3.00-3.15 pm and we were allowed to use the rental gears until 5.00 pm. Some of us went up again, buying our own gondola ticket (900¥). The gondola last departure would be at 3.45 pm and the rainbow course was closed at 4.00 pm. (Ofc its ok if you are alrd...

Last week of December 2019. The place is definitely a busy place with the majorities are the rich oversea Chinese tourist. These are the well behaved and courteous group. They are all beginners and business is booming for private and group lessons. Fresh powder from early morning snow made the slopes easy to ski and snowboarding. The bunny slope for beginner is free, but it’s crowded at the exit lane as the snowboarder tend to sit in the middle slope to strap on their board instead of the side. Don’t they realize the people on this run is also the beginner like them also. There were quite a few close calls that someone get run...