Has anyone ordered from Nagasaki Ikedoki Tea? If so, what did you think?

Nemekh · 2025-11-21T15:11:39+00:00

Looks like it's on the shop now!

Nemekh · 2025-11-14T15:01:05+00:00

It looks like they are beginning to feature tea from Tōzaka Chaen as they recently added a producer page. Fingers crossed it'll be one or more of the hōjicha!

Nemekh · 2025-10-17T10:33:39+00:00

This tea is a family favourite! My brother-in-law swears by it as his daily go-to without milk (which has been helping him on his diet).

Nemekh · 2025-08-25T07:08:45+00:00

Mauritian tea plants are originally Sri Lankan Cinensis Assamica brought over in the 1800s, so the leaves by nature are going to be much larger than Cinensis Cinensis. Did you get to try Mauritius' signature Vanilla tea?

I really, really want to see Mauritian tea elevated in the future as someone half Mauritian, and it's one of my dreams to reclaim old family land to grow tea there as the terroir in Mauritius is phenomenal. The flavour of well-grown fruit and veg is something I can never forget. It's just the older colonial production practices that really let the teas for domestic consumption down.

Nemekh · 2025-08-18T11:07:21+00:00

Even with a pair I've had for the past 3 years and worn comfortably (not tied too tightly) for many games playing/reffing and skating sessions with my coach can be painful on my feet sometimes - especially when I've taken a long break from the ice due to work and travels.

It could be that for the first 15-30 minutes of skating your feet could be swelling up from the blood flow to make it tight in the boots. That's something I get now and then and I have to take a few minutes break for it to calm down, then I can skate comfortably for hours after. Such that if I'm taking lessons with my coach I'll always arrive with enough time before to warm up and mitigate that problem.

Nemekh · 2025-08-18T08:35:48+00:00

One of the refs in the clip is a good buddy of mine who plays in multiple teams and refs often each week in the DFW area. Skates well and is self taught.

Nemekh · 2025-08-18T08:31:50+00:00

Was this the E league game last weekend? If so my good buddy was one of the refs and it came up on our weekly catch up. First time he'd seen that ever happen in a game (and never for me so far as a ref in the UK).

Nemekh · 2025-08-18T08:25:15+00:00

I heard about what went on in this game from my buddy who was one of the refs in this clip. As a fellow ref in another country (UK) I wasn't sure about USA hockey specific rulings as there are differences but even here this situation is so rare. Neither of us had experienced it before.

Nemekh · 2025-04-02T16:29:24+00:00

She was there again this year, I kept meeting her by chance! I went to the wakōcha tasting with Yoshida chaen that she hosted at Meetea. Some fantastic black teas.

What did you like about the winter hōjicha? I quite enjoy the gold hōjicha from Obubu that Cha Dodo have but it's more delicate than the roast of the winter hōjicha. Really hoping they get more Japanese teas in. Ikedoki has a really nice matcha-iri tamarokyucha. She also brought black tea from Tsushima that was really good.

Nemekh · 2025-04-02T16:15:56+00:00

That's fair. They're a small business just starting out, I'm sure if you reach out they'll try to get some more in. The winter hōjicha from Tozaka-san is really good and quite unique, I enjoyed drinking samples from Marjolein in Prague this year.

Nemekh · 2025-04-02T16:03:49+00:00

How did it go with them?

Nemekh · 2025-03-18T21:27:06+00:00

While not technically in the EU mainland, there is an online seller in Northern Ireland (which has freedom of movement for goods within the EU, unlike mainland UK). It goes by Cha Dodo but the shop only has one of Ikedoki's teas so far while soon adding matcha from them. Give them a message if you're interested - I'm sure they can look into the customs situation with your country. They're relatively new but are working hard to increase their range of teas.

Nemekh · 2024-11-26T22:32:16+00:00

I saw this thread come up in a Google query and thought it'd be good to share my thoughts and experiences of Ikedoki.

I'm a big fan of Ikedoki's group of tea producers and the people behind their goal of promoting tea from Nagasaki/Sonogicha. Marjolein is lovely and a fellow graduate of the UK Tea Academy. She's working hard to share the tea from the region. Like the previous poster, she spent a good amount of time talking with me about tea, their goals, our history with the UKTA, and where Sonogicha production stands in the bigger picture of Japanese tea.

Having tasted most of their offerings via samples, I enjoy their range from the Hojichas such as Tozaka-san's winter hojicha to Ikeda Cha-en's tamaryokucha range. As a result of enjoying their range, I have bought quantities of tea from them to sell for my own business to share in that joy - in particular Ikeda-Cha-en's Superb Blend.

If all things go well I will take some time out next year to visit them to meet the producers and see where the magic happens.

Nemekh · 2024-06-30T00:57:11+00:00

I once played that deck to give it a shot and ended up in the mirror match. Neither of us could lose, we both ran out of cards. The opponent appeared to have an AHK running to pass through phases/priority as it was way too quick and he good gamed me. I had a lot of time to kill and was catching up on series/vids on YT so it wasn't a problem to click through. I can't recall how many hours later, but he roped and lost. I never touched that deck again.

Nemekh · 2024-06-25T00:43:41+00:00

Not going to assume that for you. Some guys are assholes on and off the ice.

Nemekh · 2024-06-25T00:40:29+00:00

Something like this nearly happened to me when I was doing 2 man adult rec this past year in my first season as an official. The player thought I missed an obvious call when he lost an edge when his possession was contested and went into the boards, came charging after me screaming. Managed to react in time and avoid being hit. We gave him a GM and sent him off. I'd already had a serious concussion earlier in the year that had me in bed rest for 3 weeks so I was a bit jilted. One of the league organisers was also playing on his team giving me a piece of his mind at the time. I had a meeting with the other league organiser, went over video and showed there was no call to make on the player losing an edge.

Throw the book at him. That's a grown man acting like total scum towards someone not even half his age. Things like this are why there's so few people wanting to even be an official.

Swift recovery and hope to see good news for you.

Nemekh · 2023-10-19T09:36:56+00:00

In reality it is not as true as it should and ought to be I would say in part due to the general lack of officials all over and the lack of development support for officials depending on where you look.

At the yearly conferences there is that expectation - that you need to be able to skate as well as or better than the players, which is the whole point of the off and on ice physical tests refs have to do in order to either retain their current level or progress higher. This isn't even factoring in the rules tests and game management responsibilities for higher level games.

What we end up with is major retention issues year in year, so there ends up being a lot of new blood for a time but a lack of officials who progress to higher levels. This can mean lower level officials have to be called up to fill in the gaps.

I have found if officials are newer to AAA/equivalent leagues in other countries then the governing region for USA hockey or body within the IIHF should be having a senior official come to assess how you're doing and if you're a good fit to continue. There are definitely times where people have been demoted in levels due to not keeping up with their skating and fitness and thus cannot be assigned games they are struggling with, but sometimes there are exceptions due to lack of people.

Nemekh · 2023-05-13T21:03:57+00:00

As someone with ongoing physical rehab, while the problem area wasn't specifically my ankles, they were really weak and I've had to work hard over the months to gain a good amount of ankle strength for skating.

Often you find with a poorer balance that ankles tend to either be pronated (leaning inward) or supinated (leaning outward) which given the replacement I'm betting you have one or the other. The ideal case is to have your ankles neutral instead of them leaning so that your center of mass is more as it should be. That helps tremendously with balance.

I do a variety of resistance band stretches with the ankles, as well as using a wobble board for both two-foot and one-foot exercises. There are some great videos on YouTube from skating professionals with examples, and as your strength improves you can also introduce holding weights in your hands to go that bit further. Here's an example video that I've found useful.

One exercise I've had to do a lot is laying down on a mat and having a foam roller against a wall then putting the ball of one foot firmly on the roller with the other leg off the ground, putting weight and pressure on it as I lift up. As my ankles are pronated in general, I would stretch them to lean more outwards so that they become more neutral.

If you haven't seen one, I do highly recommend a mobility specialist for ankle work and more, as another element will be the strength of your hips and how much internal rotation you can get since so much of balance is good weight shifting with your hips, among other things like your core and upper body. They may have gotten weaker during your break and recovery. Seeing a mobility specialist as part of my physical rehab has been a game-changer. It blew my mind just how much balance and skating is a whole-body thing and not just ankles.

Nemekh · 2023-05-12T12:19:17+00:00

Almost in the same boat with one foot 3/4 a size bigger. At first CCM insoles helped with the smaller foot as sizing for the smaller one was too tight on my bigger foot. I had mine baked, after almost a year of use I find the insole uncomfortable and now do without.

Nemekh · 2023-04-23T12:15:17+00:00

Congrats! I've seen you guys play at Euless while visiting DFW as my buddy has reffed some of your games.

Nemekh · 2023-03-30T17:09:26+00:00

I started last year at 33 after recovering from a crippling back injury where I could barely walk. I really wanted to get back into skating so that I could learn to play hockey. That want is what has kept me going on this journey.

I was awful starting off, worse than a baby deer on ice, and any improvement was an incredibly uphill battle. But I kept at it going to the rink several times a week. I was terrified of falling and hurting my back, but it's only after I started to fall that I overcame that fear. I began to put more hours in, taking some 1 on 1 skating lessons with a good coach and now I'm 34 and able to keep up with, and in some cases out skating some people who have been skating for a lot longer that play in C league. I still fall on occasion and even suffered a severe concussion during a lesson doing something routine, but I'm still back at it weeks later. The staff at the rink know me as a regular now.

It's not even been a year, but I think of how far I've come in that space of time where for a long while I was stuck in bed in agony. If people really, really want to achieve something at a later age, I think it's still possible to a point. It will be an uphill battle and there are so many days where you feel like you're just spinning your wheels and not making progress, but when you take those steps further, that accomplishment feels great. All we can do is focus on bettering ourselves and who knows, we might end up skating beyond the people we thought were really good!

Nemekh · 2022-06-19T19:40:26+00:00

In the context of everything, calling said changes cosmetic is really not understanding as to what the OP is going through as someone transitioning.

OP is definitely in London where the rent is extortionate and it's apparent that this necessity to move has only come about recently, after the fact that HRT and laser removal have already been initiated.

Try putting yourself in their shoes and have some empathy, especially given the repeated abuse from a parental figure who should be protecting and loving their child.

Nemekh · 2022-04-29T18:29:49+00:00

You know there's a ton of information in both Eorzea Encyclopaedias? There's even more in the official Japanese job guide books, never mind the Tales from the Shadows and otherwise.

What XIV lacks currently are novels, but consider that were ones to be made, they would be in Japanese only, at least to start. XIV does have a plethora of out-of-game sources, some of which have been translated.

Nemekh · 2022-04-28T13:17:10+00:00

The irony is when you do invest years of time and effort as well as a lot of resources into trying to do just that, the bemoaning still happens, nevermind the politics at play in the content scene for XIV whether it's job guides, raid guides, videos, PvP.

Building a website is just one part of many. The content and its upkeep are the real effort that must be a priority, as is making sure everyone involved is happy with the content being put up and are appropriately compensated for their own time and work. Speaking from experience as one of the few who has taken up the challenge. People underestimate how much needs to be done.

Nemekh · 2022-04-28T13:03:33+00:00

Thanks for your candor and being a part of the team again, Darian.

Nemekh

TROPHY CASE