Jake, if you're interested in staying in Sapporo there are a number of hotels to stay in that can help with the language barrier. But i think you aint gonna find cheap ones too easily. If you want to stay on-mountain I'd recommend Nisseko as they are numerous pensions(like a B+ and bunkhouse type places to stay and a small, but very active foreigner presence(considering you're in the middle of nowhere..in Japan!) There's a cool village at Nisseko and a lot of powder and great boarding I hear(I'm still on two sticks). Nisseko is not unknown about so you can and probably will get a lot afo
