There is a misleading blonde blue-eyed softness about Sascha Hewitt. Actually she is as strong as on ox, which she ably demonstrates by lugging three heavy bags from her home in Tokyo's Shimo-Meguro to where we meet in Shibuya.

So here we are, with an Apple iBook and an assortment of therapeutic oils on the table competing with iced coffees, two Vietnamese-style cold platters of food and my usual scramble of stuff.

Sascha is from Perth in Western Australia, where she co-owned a fashion business, designing and selling in her home country but manufacturing in Indonesia and China. "In 1991 I sold my half to my partner and came to Japan with my then boyfriend, Ian. We had no idea what we were doing. We just knew we wanted to travel. Perth is large but isolated, nearer Jakarta than any Australian city."

The couple fell in love with Tokyo and cannot imagine wanting to live anywhere else. From teaching, she moved into Web site design and Ian into creating his own Internet business. "I also became a certified practitioner in neurofeedback (EEG biofeedback). My father is a doctor, with three machines in Perth. He tends to specialize in alcohol/drug-related problems and depression, with amazing stories of recovery."

She is not a medical practioner, "though I do document cases very carefully." Nor can she promise that neurofeedback, which is a way of learning to alter brain activity by a safe and painless means, will work for everyone. The training is most worthwhile, she feels, for anyone interested in self-development. "But it seems to help in all manner of ways. People say it has helped them with chronic fatigue, attention deficit disorders, even such things as finding that extra bit of courage to ask for a raise at work."

You can read about this aspect of Sascha's work by logging on to her Web site, which of course she designed, so exemplifying this area of her professional activity. "Check out also the range of oils that I import from Australia. The quality is fantastic, with prices extremely cheap by Japanese standards."

Many oils available here are so expensive that most people cannot afford them. Yet the prices of her products -- with simple labeling and minimal packaging -- are often so low that Japanese think there must be something wrong, and find it hard to trust them. "It's ironic, really, having to convince someone that cheap can mean good."

Sascha is not an aromatherapist. She buys the oils because she likes them, using them in every area of her daily life, from keeping her skin in condition to household chores. "I don't like washing our clothes or cleaning the house with chemicals. For example, at this time of the year I clean the bathroom and wipe out the bath with lemon gum, which is antiseptic, antiviral, antibiotic and antifungal. Oils do a much gentler, safer job, leaving house and laundry smelling just wonderful.

Which brings us to Sascha's "baby" (her terminology): the Web site she has begun to compile under the name Natural Healing Center. "It's something I have wanted to do for years: create an online store and resource center that initially is for Japan but has the potential to develop into a worldwide project."

Click on, and an impressive list of contents comes up. This includes not only details of her own services and products, but information on vegetarian and vegan shops and restaurants; meditation, prayers and mantras (you can practice even, by listening to an online tape); healers, teachers and creative people; links and ideas.

"Basically," Sascha says, "I'm devoted to making natural and inspiring products and talented people available worldwide."

In the healers, teachers and creative people section, she has listed alphabetically aromatherapy, art classes, acupuncture, awareness through movement and Ayurvedic medicine, through to shamans/shamanic healing, shiatsu, smoking cessation, vegetarian food stores, tai chi and yoga. "But this is only the beginning. . . ."

Entries for Japan are mainly in Tokyo but also Kamakura, plus sites in Thailand. "While concentrating on Japan and Tokyo, I'm willing to list anyone anywhere." Since time is at a premium, she relies very much on supporters and users of NHC to recommend listings -- any product or service found by experience to be beneficial.

While accepting recommendations on face value, she cannot take responsibility for the contents of the site. After all, what works for one person may not work for another. "All I can promise to do is remove a listing if I get more than a couple of complaints."

While she charges a flat rate of $50 for designing a Web page, simple text entries tend to be free. "Long term I'd like to find a way to make some money out of Natural Healing Center, but for now it's a service. I do it because I believe in it. It's my life work."

To date there are only five Web pages that she has designed for clients, but all very different. "It gives an idea of my style and range." One site promotes a foundation in the Philippines that offers applied behavior analysis to autistic children, a form of intensive training that requires a team of people working around the clock.

Sascha is brimming with ideas. If you're planning to go to Nepal and want to learn a few basic phrases, she wants NHC to be the place to find a teacher. If you've upgraded from a computer, bike or car that still works, or have a pile of English textbooks and want them recycled to useful purpose, NHC will be the place to find contact addresses. Also she plans a notice board for visitors from abroad.

"NaturalHealingCenter.com will not just be a link. I want it to be a community."