Japanese Ban-Cha Green Tea

I received this Ban-Cha Green Tea on Christmas day. Since then I've experimented with different steeping times, and I've also researched about how to prepare it. I can assure you that there is a lot of misinformation circulating through the web about this Japanese-lady-with-basket-on-back Ban-Cha Green Tea.

Steep: 40 secs - 1 min (this is called "under-steeping"[see: opinion])
Temp: Just before boiling, even though they use the word boiling on the damn box. You don't use boiling water on Green Tea.
Opinion: To be safe, I would steep this tea anywhere from 1 min - 1.5 mins. This is because it is very easy to mistake water for being hotter than it really is, in which case cooler water would barely steep the tea after only 40 secs.

The image featured on the right depicts half of a tool used for steeping "Full Leaf" or "Loose Leaf" tea. I use one of these. It's simply a metal ball that functions in place of a tea bag. Tea bags suffocate your tea leaves and don't let water move through them. However, for something like Herbal Tea you shouldn't really care about this, as they are always going to be rather strong and well-flavored by just following the steep times.