SAYONARA JAPANESE TEACHER TO RETIRE AT END OF YEAR

POINTING TO HIRAGANA characters on the whiteboard, Palo Alto High School Japanese teacher Teruko Kamikihara sings an upbeat song about Japanese grammar to her students. Colorful posters featuring various animated films cover the classroom walls, filling the room with color and character. Hhowever, the spirited decor is not the only thing making Kamikihara’s class so lively; she herself brings a vibrant and welcoming energy to the classroom.

For 22 years, Kamikihara, Palo Alto High School’s only Japanese teacher, has energized her students through singing, dancing and cooking. At the end of this school year, she is retiring in order to travel and relax.

Paly Spanish teacher Kevin Duffy, who has known Kamikihara for as long as she’s been teaching, said he admires the effort she puts into her job.

“She is one of the hardest-working people that I know,” Duffy said. “She’s incredibly dedicated to her teaching and to her students.”

Kamikihara has worked for the Palo Alto Unified School District since 1996, first as a volunteer at Frank S. Greene Jr. Middle School and eventually as a Japanese teacher at both Paly and Henry M. Gunn High School.

She said her passion for teaching started at a young age, and came partly from a desire to carry on her family legacy — both of her parents were teachers during her childhood in Japan.

Many students — including Palo Alto High School senior