Aisatsu

From DigitalKyohan

Japanese	Rōmaji	English
おはようございます	ohayo gozaimasu	Good Morning
こんにちは	konnichiwa	Good Afternoon
こんばんわ	konbanwa	Good Evening
失礼します	shitsurei shimasu	Excuse me (also said when leaving)
お願いします	o-negai shimasu	Please (teach me)
ありがとうございます	arigato gozaimasu	Thank you
おつかれさまです	otsukare-sama desu	Thankyou for your hard work

Aisatsu are basic greetings or phrases like "Good Morning" or "Excuse me". Japanese contains many different aisatsu that are hard to translate into Japanese and are used in specific situations. Remember aisatsu can make everyday interaction in Japanese much easier to understand.

Japanese becomes more polite as the phrases and words used become more complicated in a similar fashion to English. For example arigatou gozaimasu is the polite (丁寧　teinei) way of saying thank you, with doomo arigatou gozaimasu being politer, and just arigatou being less polite. Use as you feel appropriate.

Before you enter into the main training area of the dojo you first perform gassho rei and greet the other kenshi (depending on the time of day - ohayo gozaimasu in the morning etc).

If you have arrived late you would go to the sensei and say o-negai shimasu out of courtesy to let him know you have arrived, and also to check if there is anything you may have missed by being late and need to know (ie. changes to the schedule etc).

When starting training with a partner or group you say o-negai shimasu and when finished arigato gozaimasu.

And when you leave the dojo you do gassho rei from the enterance again and say shitsurei shimasu and to other kenshi otsukare-sama desu!