I have read that at Horaido teashop, that this 2011 years harvest was a very good one, at least for Uji Cha, , unfortunately I have not tried any tea from Uji this year, and the currency conversion rate for ron to jpy is horrible, before the financial crysis the lowerst was 10.000 JPY = 220 Ron, now 10.000 JPY = 430 Ron, I am paying almost the double of price if I pay a tea vendor in jpy, this kept me off japanese teas, very few vendors sell in usd.
I wanted to ask an opinion about Uji tea, how was it, Horaid, Ippodo, Marukyu-Koyamaen, Hibiki-an (competition grade tea?), Maiko.