It’s a new season for Tualatin High School (TuHS) tennis, and anticipation is high only three weeks in. In particular, there’s a lot of buzz around one junior who just joined the team this year: Shingo Okazaki.
Okazaki is an exchange student from Osaka, Japan. Through Ayusa International, he came to study abroad in America, arriving Aug. 23, 2025.
In Japan, Okazaki was a strong tennis player. He first picked up a racket at 7 years old and fell in love with the feeling of hitting the ball. He trained for years, eventually joining his junior high school team.
“Our best result as a team was second place at the Kinki regional championship,” Okazaki recalled. “The next year at a qualifying tournament, we were one win away from nationals, but we lost. It was sad. That was my last competition for junior high.”
Moving on to high school, Okazaki’s father suggested that he take part in an exchange program.
“Before he recommended me, I had never even been interested in studying abroad. This might sound silly, but I watched the anime called ‘Pokémon.’ Seeing Ash Ketchum travel around the world and grow stronger in ‘Pokémon’ was the deciding factor that led me to choose to study abroad.”
Okazaki faced challenges while adjusting to life in the US.
Firstly, there was an obvious language barrier.
“My English gets better little by little. I cannot say what I want 100 percent of the time, and I need to prepare my words to speak.”
One of the more surprising differences he ran into was the transportation.
“Trains are not as popular in America. I took the train everywhere in Japan, but here people drive cars. I can’t drive a car. This is stressing me.”
In September, Okazaki joined the TuHS boys’ tennis club, making new friends and playing tennis for the first time in America. He was immediately welcomed by the team, practicing with them multiple days a week before the season began. At the end of the school year, Shingo will return home to Osaka.
“Since coming here, I feel I understand my own mind a lot better. I don’t use Japanese all the time anymore, so I’m having more complex thoughts. This made me notice details about who I am as a person, like how I react in different situations. I often overthought and would end the day without accomplishing much. Now, I focus on taking action rather than just thinking, and I make sure to do what needs to be done every day.”
