Hello, I am Yoshi from NILS Japanese language school. New students for the April 2012 Session arrive in Fukuoka this week. I would like to introduce one of the useful expressions to them, that is Domo どうも.
Domo is the most often an abbreviation of Domo arigato gozaimasu どうもありがとうございます “Thank you very much” or Domo shitsurei-shimashita どうも失礼しました “I am very sorry for what I have done.” Lately, Domo seems to have started developing a wider and wider range of meaning, however. Thus it is beginning to function as a salutation in a tremendous number of situations. Some people use it in lieu of other more established greetings such as Konnichi wa こんにちは “Good day!” and Sayonara さようなら “Good-by!” and even Moshi-moshi もしもし (a greeting on the phone, meaning “Hello!”).

April 10th News, from NILS Japanese language school.