The hippies were right -- go macrobiotic!

FUKUOKA -- Is it possible to re-create the clean, almost-vegetarian Japanese cuisine of the past?

That's been Yasuko Takahata's mission for the last 20 years, through her cooking lessons, a hectic schedule of nutrition lectures and the nine books she has penned. But Takahata, who has a degree in food science from Beppu University, did not begin her career teaching macrobiotic Japanese cooking.

"For 10 years I hammered in the principles of Western cooking using eggs, meat and milk in my classes, even though the locals complained they couldn't afford such ingredients," says Takahata of her early years as a nutritionist in Orio, a small agricultural and fishing town outside Kitakyushu in northern Fukuoka Prefecture.