This is the standard vocabulary for salutations in Japanese. [i]

Saying "Hello" and "Good Bye"

Konnichi wa -- [i] Hello
Ohayou gozaimasu -- Good morning (formal)
Ohayou Mornin' (informal)
Konban wa -- Good evening

jaa -- 'Later' (informal)
Ja ne -- See you around (Informal)
sayonara -- Good bye (more for long-term)
bai bai -- Bye-bye! (informal)

Note: These are the most common ones. There's tons of other ways to say "Hello" and "goodbye" from different dialects. I'm not fluent in the Osaka or Nagoya accented Japanese, so bare with me.


gomen -- Sorry (informal)
gomen nasai - I'm sorry (formal)
sumimasen Excuse me
douzou - please
kudasai - please
gozaru - verb that is very formal and is used in endings
arigatou - Thank you

I'll update this later when I get out of class. Or if anyone else wants to add vocab, by all means, please do.

Gomen nasai if this against the rules, but for sumimasen
sumimasen (soo-mee-mah-SEN) is used in any situation where you need to apologize for something small, such as causing someone inconvenience by bumping into them in the street, calling the wrong number, or ordering curry with fried beef intestines accidentally because you couldn't read the kanji in the menu, then asking for something else instead. Many situations which would call for a "thank you" in English work better with sumimasen in Japanese, something I learned at a public bath a few weeks after first arriving here. We'd stayed a few minutes after closing time, causing minor inconvenience to the staff who no doubt wanted to get home, and as we left my Japanese coworker said sumimasen to them ("we're sorry for taking too long in the bath") rather than the phrase I would have used, arigato ("thank you for letting us stay a few minutes past closing time"). When I asked about this, I was told that "'Thank you' sounds cheap. 'Excuse me' is a better word for Japanese people."

NOTE: an excerpt from Peter Payne

Quoted^(ref) Singapore (on 1 November, 2007, 10:49 PM PDT) —

Gomen nasai if this against the rules, but for sumimasen
sumimasen (soo-mee-mah-SEN) is used in any situation where you need to apologize for something small, such as causing someone inconvenience by bumping into them in the street, calling the wrong number, or ordering curry with fried beef intestines accidentally because you couldn't read the kanji in the menu, then asking for something else instead. Many situations which would call for a "thank you" in English work better with sumimasen in Japanese, something I learned at a public bath a few weeks after first arriving here. We'd stayed a few minutes after closing time, causing minor inconvenience to the staff who no doubt wanted to get home, and as we left my Japanese coworker said sumimasen to them ("we're sorry for taking too long in the bath") rather than the phrase I would have used, arigato ("thank you for letting us stay a few minutes past closing time"). When I asked about this, I was told that "'Thank you' sounds cheap. 'Excuse me' is a better word for Japanese people."

NOTE: an excerpt from Peter Payne

that's true. I learned sumimasen to have 3 meanings.
Sorry, excuse me, and thank you. It can be a bit confusing at first, but becomes clear when you hear it in practice.