Sapporo Teine, Japan, Jan. 20, 2016

Tony Crocker

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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.

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Teine was the site of the slalom and GS events at the 1972 Olympics, and here is the caldron that had the Olympic torch.
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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?
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There is a summer amusement park on site.
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I pretended to schuss a buried section of roller coaster.
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Mattias actually skied a little bit of this one.
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There was a short section of low angle untracked birch forest below the amusement park. Here’s the kids’ area at the bottom.
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There’s a nice view of Sapporo and the Sea of Japan, for which we caught a short sunny break.
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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.
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Shinto gates:
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Mattias inscribes New Year aspirations on this “graffiti table.”
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In the late afternoon we wandered through some Sapporo department stores. Liz liked this advertising for a new Japanese movie.
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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.
 
http://uu-hokkaido.com/beef/index.html
This particular Wagyu was Tokachi Wagyu from southern Hokkaido. I had previously tasted 2 ounces of "Japanese Wagyu" at Wolfgang Puck's Cut restaurant in Las Vegas on the way home from Iron Blosam week in 2014.

Cut served that as part of a plate of 4 kinds of steak. One of those was "American Wagyu," which was explicitly defined as a crossbreed between Japanese and American breeds.

From MarcC's informative post above,
http://www.eater.com/2015/11/9/9685928/ ... real-wagyu
The fat itself is a rare treat. It's evenly distributed through the beef and has a "melting point" lower than the human body temperature — so the beef dissolves in your mouth like butter.
That texture was the distinctive feature of the Japanese Wagyu at both Cut and Beef Impact. I have no doubt that "Kobe Beef" must come from a small geographical area, sort of like Champagne in France. But also like Champagne, a very similar product can be produced elsewhere for a more reasonable price.

The buttery texture is impressive, but there is little of the steak flavor to which Americans are accustomed. I personally like the American crossbred Wagyu better.
 
Thoroughly enjoyed all these reports.

My friend Mike spends each season in Niseko although this year he has cut it short and is currently skiing in Georgia.
 
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