moshi moshi, konichiwa, konbaha, ohayou gozaimasu
Explanation:
moshi moshi is for the telephone. Literally it means "I say, I say," or perhaps "I utter, I utter" since it uses the humble word for "say." And the subject "I" is abbreviated. There is no need to use the subject in Japanese.
"Konichi wa" means "today" or perhaps "It's today" and it is the partner of "konban wa" meaning "tonight" or "it"s tonight." These are rather like "good day" and "good evening."
In the morning people say "Ohayou gozaimasu" which means "It's early," or "I beg to inform you that it is early," since again, it is using a humble adjective and verb form. ("Ohayou" means "early", "gozaimasu" means "to be"). Sometimes, in work environments where people meet each other for the first time in the evening, such as the entertainment industry, peope will say "ohayou gozaimasu" when the first meet even if it is 5pm.
Alternatively, to a friend one might say "yaa" which is an exclamation like "Hi."
Or when someone wants attract someones attention to the fact that they are about to speak they might say "anou..." which literally means "that...." or "er..umm..."
Also most people understand and some Japanese even say "Harou" being the Japanese way of pronouncing "Hello."
So there is no direct equivalent of hello. What you say as a first greeting depends on the time of day and where you are. In my humble opinion.
Reference: http://www.nifty.ne.jp/forum/fshosai/koujimo0001.html
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peer agreement (net): +3