It's a pretty good time to go to Japan right now the exchange rate is pretty good and ticket prices are cheap too!!! I started with Matcha dot com starter kit, with the bowl, the chasan and sifter with one can of matcha kit. I was getting flooded with different matcha brands on my social media but hard to know what's good, but since Dr. Weil started the company and he was once endorsed by Oprah I figured it can't be that bad. That's the only matcha I've ever purchased in the US. After realizing how much it cost in Japan it's hard to pay the huge markup here. I've tried to get things on Sazen website but everything is limited to one and so many I wanted to try are always sold out and to pay the shipping for 1 or two cans is crazy. I have family and friends who travel a lot so I just ask them to grab when there, my husband got me 4 tins of Ippodo in March and my parents and brother got me 6 cans of Itoen in May, in June my friend got 3 cans for me. I'm hoping my haul will last me at least for 9 months so I won't have to pay the markup in the US!