To get some more interview practice in Japanese, we invited another Japanese food entrepreneur for an online interview. Shin is a pastry chef and in 2016, founded a café in Berlin. He sells Japanese-French fusion cakes and tartlets, matcha latte and, during the summer, matcha ice. During the interview, students asked about his café, his products and work and about his impression of Berlin’s Japanese foodscapes. In the end, we also inquired about his experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The interview went smooth due to students’ great questions and Shin’s willingness to share insights about his life in Berlin and his work. Although the pandemic had a negative impact on his business, he also enjoyed some time for himself due to a reduced workload. He said it was no problem to switch to takeout service, because cake can be taken home easily. He didn’t only receive financial support from the federal government and from Berlin’s federal state government, but his regular customers stopped by during the pandemic and bought cake to support him as well. While it was rough at times, he wanted to keep his café open for his customers. In November 2020, there were only very few customers coming on weekdays, so he decided to only open on weekends. With the relaxed Covid restrictions, customers slowly return for enjoying matcha latte and cake at the café’s terrace. Instead of meeting Shin online, next time, we’ll go there and have some of his delicious cake ourselves.

Pastries and sweets from Shin’s Café (Copyright © Shin Komine)