How to say hello and goodbye in shops?


I am currently staying in Japan for four weeks. I learned to read & write kana
and some basic Japanese (basic particles and sentence structure and some
vocabulary), but as you can imagine I’m still struggling with a lot of day-to-
day stuff

I noticed that, in shops, basically nobody greats me with こんにちは konnichiwa or
こんばんは konbanwa. If I do so, I get greeted back the same way (probably out of
courtesy). But of course I would like to greet people (in this case store
clerks) the common way. But, for the life of me, I can’t understand what
exactly they are saying when greeting me. I thought for a while for hello they
say すみません sumimasen, but I couldn’t find any reference for すみません being used in
such a way. For goodbye, I honestly have no idea what to say (or what they are
saying). I usually say “ありがとう ございます arrigato gozaimasu” and leave.

**TL;DR: What’s the common way to say hello and goodbye in stores in Japan? An
answer with kana (no kanji) would be very much appreciated**




Normally Japanese people ignore the store and restaurant clerks, especially
this generic "Irasshaimase" that travels through the whole store every time a
customer enters. It depends a lot on the type of store, how "personal" you
become and/or are with the clerks etc. For example in convenience stores, the
staff is barely even acknowledged.

If you want you can give a shallow bow towards the person and say
"konnichiwa"/"konbanwa" when you meet them, and/or a simple "arigatou
gozaimashita"/"domo" (in your situation I would recommend the former) when you
have paid and get the receipt etc.

For restaurants you can instead say "gochisousama deshita" (Youtube the
pronunciation ;) ) when leaving. This is a set phrase for when you have
finished eating, to show your gratefulness. There's an ongoing debate whether
or not to say it at restaurants, but at the very least it does not hurt anyone
to say it and many people do.

If you want to get the attention of the personnel you would say "sumimasen"
which means "excuse me", and not "konnichiwa" like some other cultures, e.g.
French.

Personally I always thank the store clerk simply because I think it is polite.
I also often greet them with a simple "konnichiwa", which in my case serves a
practical purpose as it shows the person that I speak Japanese.




Normally Japanese people ignore the store and restaurant clerks, especially
this generic "Irasshaimase" that travels through the whole store every time a
customer enters. It depends a lot on the type of store, how "personal" you
become and/or are with the clerks etc. For example in convenience stores, the
staff is barely even acknowledged.

If you want you can give a shallow bow towards the person and say
"konnichiwa"/"konbanwa" when you meet them, and/or a simple "arigatou
gozaimashita"/"domo" (in your situation I would recommend the former) when you
have paid and get the receipt etc.

For restaurants you can instead say "gochisousama deshita" (Youtube the
pronunciation ;) ) when leaving. This is a set phrase for when you have
finished eating, to show your gratefulness. There's an ongoing debate whether
or not to say it at restaurants, but at the very least it does not hurt anyone
to say it and many people do.

If you want to get the attention of the personnel you would say "sumimasen"
which means "excuse me", and not "konnichiwa" like some other cultures, e.g.
French.

Personally I always thank the store clerk simply because I think it is polite.
I also often greet them with a simple "konnichiwa", which in my case serves a
practical purpose as it shows the person that I speak Japanese.

