Researcher Sugano Nona Wants to Share the Happiness Found in Daily Meals

We cannot exist without our daily meals. If eating your daily meals brings you happiness, surely you can spend all 365 days a year being happy. Prizing this thinking is the organic cooking school Wakuwaku Work based in Kawasaki, Kanagawa.

School representative Sugano Nona, in addition to the school’s classes, holds food-related events and workshops, publishes cookbooks, and engages in many other activities. Sugano has recently gained attention for her Onigiri [rice ball] Caravan, which forms loose connections online, and for starting the Rice and Miso Soup baton relay on social media.

We spoke with Sugano about her thoughts on food and her activities.

What I want to get across is the importance of daily meals

Sugano started Wakuwaku Work in 2007, an organic cooking school that she set up with her mother, a registered dietitian.

Although the school is called organic, there are no hard-and-fast rules. The baseline is rice and miso soup, the fundamentals of meals since antiquity. Sugano conveys through the classes the importance of daily meals.

“My philosophy and the future I envision is finding one’s happiness through daily meals. I’ve met many mothers who work extremely diligently to prepare meals for their kids while putting off eating their own meals.

“If we can turn meal-making, which is prone to becoming drudgery, into a more fulfilling time, then I’m certain it will slowly and gradually turn into a source of happiness. Being picky about ingredients may also be necessary, but what I feel is most important is enjoying meal-making and eating well with the whole family.”

Cooking researcher Sugano Nona runs the Wakuwaku Work cooking school

Sugano’s philosophy shows up in the Food and Mind Balance Class, which has been offered since the school’s inception.

“The Food and Mind Balance Class is a six-month course that helps students maintain their mental balance while enjoying making daily meals in their own style without trying to do too much.

“What’s distinctive about the class is the review work the students do after each cooking session. It’s not about learning a recipe and then the class is over. Rather it’s designed to have the students take the lessons home with them and continue working on them.”

Multigenerational connections spun out of onigiri

Sugano was set to launch a new challenge in 2020 called the Onigiri Caravan, a kind of road trip-cum-cooking class. The original plan was to travel around the country, making and publicizing onigiri, miso soup, and local dishes of each region. However, due to COVID 19, the travel plans were shelved.

The COVID 19 pandemic resulted in more people staying at home with their family due to voluntary restrictions on going out, school closures, and more chances to work from home. This got Sugano thinking about some way for people to feel connected even when they could not meet in person.

What she came up with was making onigiri together with other participants online. This was the beginning of the Online Onigiri Caravan.

Everyone can make onigiri, even kids and people who normally don’t cook

“Ultimately, it become an online event using a videoconferencing system, and people of all generations participated and not just from Kanto, but from Kansai, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and all over Japan.

“Onigiri has long been a familiar soul food for the Japanese. Through onigiri-making, the event conveyed many things, such as the goodness of homemade cooking, Japanese food culture, and the joy of eating together with others. The participants shared memories of onigiri, showed off their signature onigiri to each other, and explained how to make delicious onigiri. Even once we are able to set up in-person travelling classes around the country, I intend to continue the online events.”

A screenshot of the Online Onigiri Caravan, which saw a wealth of original onigiri each time the event was held

Social media posts gave rise to a new project

During the voluntary lockdowns, many baton relays appeared on social media that connected people together around a certain theme. One of these was the Rice and Miso Soup Baton relay started by Sugano. The theme of rice and miso soup, which anyone can easily prepare, took off, attracting more than 4,000 posts.

“I started the baton relay with the hope that people would enjoy their daily lives a little more by viewing images of rice and miso soup while they spent more time at home. I was surprised because I never imagined this idea would connect so many people.

“I couldn’t be happier if this opportunity encourages more people to revisit the fundamentals of a meal — namely, rice and miso soup.”

The Rice and Miso Soup Baton had people photograph their rice and miso soup meals before eating and post the photo on their social media account or blog. The rule is to pass the “baton” to someone you name (of course, there is no obligation attached).

The Rice and Miso Soup Baton created a new opportunity for Sugano: The 2020 Rice and Miso Soup Symposium, a gathering of chefs and people interested in food who were brought together by the baton relay.

“The 2020 Rice and Miso Soup Symposium involved deciding on themes, such as food-related interests and challenges, and then forming teams among the participants to implement and carry out various projects.

“We were able to take a step toward protecting the future of food, which is something I had been thinking about for a long time.”

I want people to incorporate a balance of time-saving and time-savoring into their lives

Given how busy our modern lifestyles are, more people are looking to save time, such as cutting back on the labor it takes to make meals. The flip side of this, however, as Sugano says, is the sense of fulfillment that you get by taking your time when cooking.

“Wakuwaku Work offers the Fermentation By Hand Class, in which students make their own soy sauce and miso by hand.

“Saving time, of course, is a wonderful idea. But I think it’s also great to have things in our lives that take time to mature. In the sense that we don’t seek hasty answers, fermentation can be likened to raising a child. Saving time and taking time to let things mature may seem like exact opposites at a glance, but I believe that incorporating both into our lives in a balanced manner enriches our lives.”

Sugano and the other certified Wakuwaku Work instructors share the same intentions and work together to enliven the school’s activities

Rice, onigiri, and miso soup are foods that have been with the Japanese for generations. One aspect of Wakuwaku Work’s activities is conveying Japan’s traditional food culture.

“When I think about the future ahead of us, I feel a need to preserve and pass on the good old things. That’s why I started these classes to revisit the significance of Japan’s traditional food practices, and in the process, I’m furthering my own learning.

“My hope is to play a role in connecting the past, the present, and the future through food.”