Yuko Sakurai | マクロビオティックわの会

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Macrobiotic Cooking School Lima main campus instructor
Macrobiotic Cooking School Lima Fujigaoka branch (Nagomi) founder
Graduate of Macrobiotic Cooking School Lima Master’s program, certified instructor, certified medical chef.

Yuko was born in Hong Kong and raised there until the age of 6. During that time, the sight of mothers and children begging on the streets due to the wealth disparity in Hong Kong remained in her head, leading her to research wealth disparity and inequality during her times when she was a university student. Yuko’s research focused on Bhutan’s “Gross National Happiness” which even lead her to travel to Bhutan to investigate, continuously questioning what true wealth and happiness mean. After becoming an adult, she quit her job and went to a graduate program in the Philippines, continuing her research on street children (child labor) while doing observation in the streets and slums. She works towards world peace from the perspective of these socially vulnerable children, wishing to protect them from danger, free them from hunger, and provide them with education.

In her late twenties, Yuko held various jobs such as an NGO staff and university lecturer. However, her life changed dramatically after she became pregnant with her first child in 2006. She sought care at the Lima Kamagaya School, a midwifery clinic at the time, where she discovered macrobiotic diet and it’s way of thinking. Until then, she had suffered from various health problems, including eczema, asthma, chilliness, and mild insomnia, but changing her diet helped her improve her health. She gave birth on a tatami mat and had an extremely easy delivery that lasted about three hours, which made her realize how much the food she ate affected her body. Afterward, she practiced raising her three children based on a macrobiotic lifestyle (while repeating various failures and reflections, which is an ongoing process).

While carrying her baby, Yuko studied from basic to advanced levels of treatment methods at the Lima Sisters School in Chiba from Kazue Omori. She was taught by Aiko Tanaka in the teacher training course at the Lima School main campus, by Kouji Matsumoto in the instructor training course, and learned the essence of macrobiotic cooking from great teachers such as Hikari Ogata. Yuko strongly inspired with the words of Lima Sakurazawa, “If more peaceful families are created, the society will become more peaceful. If the society becomes more peaceful, the world will become more peaceful. Peaceful families are made up of housewives who have love in one family.” She decided to work towards creating a peaceful society by first working on dietary issues, and convincing her husband.

At Cooking School Lima, Yuko mainly teaches Basic I (beginner level) class. At her own cooking school (Nagomi), she teaches Basic I (beginner level), Basic II (intermediate level), and Advanced level at Lima Fujigaoka School. She also holds workshops such as “Easy Parenting with Macrobiotics” and “Cooking with Parents and Children.” She is currently attempting to teach her courses online as well.

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It all started when I was asked by a mother friend from my child’s kindergarten to start a small macrobiotic cooking class at home. Soon however, I began to hear from other mothers that macrobiotics seemed “difficult,” “intimidating,” “hard to incorporate into their family’s diet,” and “impossible to balance with work and home life.” It’s also a fact that macrobiotics has a negative image as a strict diet that prohibits animal products, refined sugar, and dairy, which has become too widespread in the society.

I want to change the way macrobiotic cooking classes and dietary guidances are provided to better suit the physical constitution, lifestyle, and needs of modern people, and to share the wisdom of macrobiotics with as many people as possible. I especially want mothers who are raising children to use the wisdom of macrobiotics and the yin-yang balance to make their daily childcare easier. I want the next generation of children to have a genuine diet that nurtures a healthy mind and body which will create a brighter future. With these thoughts at the root, I aim to promote macrobiotic cooking classes that are easy to follow and enjoyable for even busy people, with a low threshold. The goal now is to establish the lifestyle of macrobiotics as a “new era’s lifestyle”!

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