My daughter had ice cream for the first time. And she really got excited. Actually, the ice cream is known for being produced by a German soccer player. The reason why I know this, is a little bit of a long story.

The ice cream shops have opened shops in Germany but their Japanese shop is the first shop that has been opened abroad. This shop happens to be in Kobe.

One day, my friend introduced me to the shop owner because they wanted to ask me if I could write an article about the job. But at that time, I was very busy, so at first, I wasn’t too enthusiastic about it. I went anyways, just to suss out the situation.

Even though I was not enthusiastic at first, by the time I met the owner, I was already hyped. This was because my friend who introduced me to the shop had shown me articles that detailed the background of the soccer player and the owner of the Kobe shop.

One of the reasons why I was interested was that the owner is an interesting character and not only does he speak five languages but, he also graduated from university, from the legal department which is an incredible achievement for an athlete in his time. He was also an interpreter of the German soccer player after retiring as a soccer player.

The owner told me about the German soccer player who produced these ice cream shops. The reason why he chose ice cream was because during his soccer playing days, he had to eat clean and was not able to eat sweets, especially mid soccer season. But, one time, during one championship, he remembers that he was served frozen yogurt as dessert. For a person who had not eaten sweets too often, he remembers how much joy the ice cream gave him. And it was that moment when he realized that this could be a future business opportunity.

Years later, he started his ice cream business and he opened some shops in Germany in hopes that his ice cream shop would be loved by people from all over the world, as “the ice cream shop to go to”. 

Eventually, for his first overseas shop, he chose Kobe, a place close to his heart; where he lived and played for its local team.

Nowadays, I’m glad that I can write articles which have stories like these.　Someday, I like imagining that I would talk in English with the German soccer player. Of course, I don’t know if the soccer player likes speaking English, but knowing his amazing international career, I know he is probably great at English.

Articles in Japanese about an ice cream shop