Japanese Dairy Greetings for travelers / Ko N Ni Chi Wa

Hi, this is Yuyujin.

Today, I will introduce you some dairy greetings in Japanese.
Greeting is the basic communication tool.
If you learn the dairy greetings and use them in your travel, you can enjoy Japan travel much deeply.

Let’s get started.

Contents

Bow with greeting
Greeting phrases

Bow with greeting

Japanese usually says dairy greetings with bow.
You can see that bow in Hollywood movies that indicates Japanese style.
But some bows in the movies are unnatural.
I remember the very weird Japanese bow in the movie “Rising Sun” of Michael Crichton.

OK, the natural bow is as below.

Men bow with their arms and hands straight at their sides of the body.
Women bow with their hands put in front of the body.
The arms and hands should not be very rigid.
But if the body and arms are straight, it looks beautiful.

When you are bowing you need not to see the person eye you talk to.

The natural bow could be difficult for non-Japanese.
The weird Japanese bow in Hollywood movies is too quick and multiple bow.
Please try to bow slowly ( count 3 seconds) and once.

Greeting phrases

Hello./Hi./Good afternoon.
Kon Ni Chi Wa
こんにちは

“Kon Ni Chi Wa” is a very common greeting phrase.

It is commonly used in day time.

Good morning.

O Ha Yo U
おはよう

“O Ha Yo U” is greeting in morning and at the beginning of the business time.
“O Ha Yo U Go Za I Ma Su” is more polite than “O Ha Yo U”.

Good evening.
Kon Ban Wa
こんばんは

“Kon Ban Wa” is greeting at night not in afternoon.

Good night.
O Ya Su Mi Na Sa I
おやすみなさい

“O Ya Su Mi Na Sa I” is used just before going bed for sleep.

OK, that’s it.
Thank you so much.
Have a good trip!