Here’s a question: when’s the last time making dinner also fed five hungry children halfway across the globe?
On October 18, you can cook from your own kitchen, learn to make authentic Japanese rice balls (onigiri), decorate them with cute Halloween faces, and—just by taking a photo—provide school meals to kids in need. All from the comfort of your home. All for $10-15.
Welcome to Ouchigohan, the Japanese home cooking class series that’s part cooking lesson, part cultural experience, and entirely about bringing people together over food that matters.
What You’re Actually Making
This isn’t just a cooking class. It’s a Halloween bash featuring three Japanese dishes that’ll become family favorites:
Onigiri (Rice Balls)
These hand-shaped rice balls filled with flaky salmon or creamy tuna mayo are Japanese comfort food at its finest. They’re what Japanese families make for loved ones—for picnics, school lunches, road trips, or just because. During the class, you’ll learn the traditional technique for shaping perfect onigiri, then decorate them with Halloween faces using nori (seaweed) for the ultimate festive touch.
Think of them as Japanese sandwiches, but way more fun to make and infinitely more Instagrammable when you add jack-o’-lantern faces.
Pumpkin (Kabocha) Soup
Perfect for fall, this soup celebrates Japanese kabocha pumpkin—naturally sweeter and creamier than the pumpkins you carve. The result is smooth, comforting, and simple enough to make on a busy weeknight. It’s the kind of soup that warms you from the inside out when Texas October weather finally decides to cool down.
Spinach Ohitashi
This classic Japanese side dish showcases how Japanese cuisine creates big flavor from simple ingredients. Blanched spinach gets dressed with either katsuo flakes (bonito) or sesame seeds for a vegetarian option. It’s light, flavorful, and provides that crucial balance to a meal—the way Japanese home cooking always does.
The Onigiri Action Connection
Here’s where it gets good. This class participates in #OnigiriAction, an annual social good campaign by TABLE FOR TWO that aims to provide 1 million school meals to children in need every year.
The concept is brilliantly simple: take a photo of your onigiri and post it with #OnigiriAction. Each photo generates five school meals for children in East Africa, Southeast Asia, and low-income communities in the United States.
Since launching in 2015, Onigiri Action has provided millions of school meals. Last year alone, 292,836 photos resulted in 1.4 million meals for kids who need them. The campaign even won recognition from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the SDGs awards ceremony.
Your Halloween cooking class becomes part of this global movement. You’re not just learning to cook—you’re joining thousands of people worldwide who are using something as simple as a rice ball to fight childhood hunger.
Meet Your Instructor: Debra Samuels
Debra Samuels doesn’t just teach cooking—she’s spent her career making Japanese food culture accessible to non-Japanese audiences.
She leads curriculum development for Wa-Shokuiku, TABLE FOR TWO’s Japanese food education program. She’s authored two cookbooks: “My Japanese Table” and “The Korean Table.” She contributed to the Boston Globe’s food section for years. She’s curated museum exhibitions about Japanese food culture, from bento boxes to culinary tools.
Oh, and she’s lived in Japan for 12 years total, specializing in Japanese cuisine.
During COVID-19, Debra pioneered online cooking programs, teaching workshops to youth and adults around the world. She knows how to make cooking lessons work through a screen, keeping them engaging, informative, and fun even when you’re cooking in your own kitchen hundreds of miles away.
When Debra teaches, you’re not just following recipes. You’re learning the cultural context, the why behind the technique, the stories that make Japanese home cooking meaningful.
How the Online Class Works
This is a family-friendly ZOOM class where you can either cook along in real-time or simply watch and learn. Your choice.
Before the Class: A few days before October 18, you’ll receive the recipe card with the complete ingredient list and the Zoom link. This gives you time to shop for ingredients and prep your kitchen.
During the Class: Log into Zoom from your kitchen (or living room, or wherever you’ve set up). Debra will guide you through each dish step-by-step, demonstrating techniques, answering questions, and sharing tips that only come from years of experience. The format is interactive—ask questions, show your progress, learn from other participants.
The Halloween Touch: This isn’t just any onigiri class. October’s theme is Halloween, so you’ll learn how to decorate your rice balls with cute jack-o’-lantern faces, ghost designs, or whatever festive creation you imagine. It’s cooking meets crafting, perfect for involving kids.
After the Class: Take photos of your creations. Post them on social media or the Onigiri Action campaign website with #OnigiriAction. Watch the counter on the website tracking how many meals your photos (and everyone else’s) are providing to children in need.
Why Onigiri Matters
In Japanese culture, onigiri represents love and care. Mothers make them for children’s lunches. Friends make them for picnics. Families make them together for celebrations.
The act of shaping rice with your hands, filling it with something delicious, wrapping it carefully—it’s an expression of caring for someone. That’s why TABLE FOR TWO chose onigiri for their campaign. It’s food made with love, meant to be shared.
When you make onigiri and share photos, you’re extending that caring beyond your own kitchen. You’re saying: I made something with love, and that love reaches children I’ll never meet but who need a good meal.
It’s a beautiful philosophy, wrapped up in a rice ball.
The Bigger Picture: TABLE FOR TWO
TABLE FOR TWO tackles a global food imbalance: In our world of 8 billion people, 700 million suffer from hunger while 2.5 billion deal with obesity and health issues from unhealthy eating.
Their solution? A meal-sharing program. They partner with corporations, restaurants, and schools to serve healthy meals. For each meal served, $0.25 goes toward providing a school meal for a child in need.
They work in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, the Philippines, and low-income communities across the United States. They provide not just food, but the nutrition that helps children stay in school, focus on learning, and build healthy futures.
Onigiri Action extends this mission to everyone. You don’t need to work for a partner corporation or eat at a partner restaurant. You just need to make onigiri, take a photo, and share it.
Democracy applied to charitable giving: anyone can participate, everyone makes a difference.
What You Need
Cost:
- JASH Members: $10 (use code “houston” at checkout)
- Non-members: $15
- One registration covers your whole family
Equipment:
- Computer, tablet, or phone with Zoom capability
- Basic cooking equipment (bowls, pot for cooking, cutting board, knife)
- Your kitchen
Ingredients: The recipe card arrives a few days before the class with the complete shopping list. Expect to need:
- Short or medium-grain rice (sushi rice works perfectly)
- Salmon or canned tuna
- Mayonnaise, soy sauce
- Nori (roasted seaweed sheets)
- Kabocha pumpkin (or substitute butternut squash)
- Fresh spinach
- Sesame seeds or katsuo flakes
Most ingredients are available at regular grocery stores. Asian grocery stores will have specialty items like nori and katsuo flakes if your regular store doesn’t.
Prep: Cook your rice before class starts. Everything else happens during the class.
Why This Matters Right Now
October 16 is World Food Day, established by the United Nations as a day to think about global food issues. Onigiri Action runs throughout October and November, transforming World Food Day from a single date of awareness into weeks of action.
This year, the campaign aims to provide 1 million meals. Last year’s campaign reached 1.4 million meals from 292,836 photos posted from 52 countries. The numbers keep growing because the concept works: make something delicious, share it visually, and automatically contribute to feeding children in need.
Your participation in the October 18 class adds to this global movement. You’re one of thousands of people worldwide making onigiri in October, creating a wave of goodwill one rice ball at a time.
Perfect for Families
This class is explicitly family-friendly. Kids can help shape onigiri (it’s tactile and fun). They can decorate the Halloween faces (creativity unleashed). They can understand that making food and sharing photos helps other kids.
It’s a powerful lesson: your actions matter. Your participation contributes to something bigger than yourself. And you can make a difference while having fun in your kitchen.
Plus, the resulting onigiri make excellent school lunches, snacks, or light dinners. You’re not just learning for one night—you’re adding techniques to your regular rotation.
The Bottom Line
On October 18 at [time from registration], log into Zoom from your kitchen. Spend an evening learning authentic Japanese home cooking from an expert instructor. Make delicious food your family will actually eat. Decorate rice balls with Halloween faces. Take photos. Post with #OnigiriAction. Know that your photos just provided 25 school meals to children in need (5 meals per photo, and you’ll take at least 5 photos).
All for $10-15. All from home. All while connecting to a global community doing the same thing.
It’s cooking class, cultural exchange, charitable giving, and family activity rolled into one evening. The Japanese have a concept called “ichigo ichie”—the idea that each moment is unique and will never happen again exactly the same way. This class embodies that philosophy.
Make rice balls. Share love. Feed children. Build memories.
Register by October 18 and join the Halloween Onigiri Action bash.
Event Details
What: Ouchigohan! Japanese Home Cooking – Halloween Onigiri Action
When: Saturday, October 18, 2025 (exact time provided upon registration)
Where: ONLINE via Zoom (link sent after registration)
Cost:
- JASH Members: $10 (use code “houston”)
- Non-members: $15
- One registration per family
Register: jas-hou.org/events
What You’ll Make:
- Onigiri (Japanese rice balls with salmon or tuna)
- Kabocha Pumpkin Soup
- Spinach Ohitashi
Instructor: Debra Samuels
- Lead curriculum developer, Wa-Shokuiku (TABLE FOR TWO)
- Author of “My Japanese Table” and “The Korean Table”
- 12 years living in Japan
- Former Boston Globe food writer
- Museum exhibition curator for Japanese food culture
What You’ll Receive:
- Recipe card with complete ingredient list (sent before class)
- Zoom link (sent before class)
- Step-by-step instruction during class
- Tips and techniques from expert instructor
- Connection to global #OnigiriAction campaign
What to Bring:
- Ingredients (list provided after registration)
- Basic cooking equipment
- Camera or phone for photos
- Enthusiasm for learning
Good to Know:
- Family-friendly format
- Can cook along or just watch
- Recipe card yours to keep
- Photos you take provide school meals through #OnigiriAction
- Class includes Halloween decoration techniques
The Impact: Every onigiri photo posted with #OnigiriAction provides 5 school meals to children in East Africa, Southeast Asia, and low-income U.S. communities through TABLE FOR TWO’s partnership network.
Questions? Contact Japan-America Society of Houston: jas-hou.org
About the Campaign: #OnigiriAction runs October through November annually, commemorating World Food Day (October 16). Since 2015, the campaign has provided millions of school meals. The 2024 campaign alone generated 1.4 million meals from 292,836 photos.
Join the Movement: After class, post your onigiri photos with #OnigiriAction on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or the campaign website at onigiri-action.com
See you in the kitchen! 🍙👻🎃
