Re: bowing in
Woah, I always thought it was "Gozaimasu." I've been taking japanese for some time now and the "thank you very much" is always spelled "Doomo Arigato Gozaimasu" (without the ta at the end.) Maybe it's just a dialect thing.
Anyway, just to throw in my bit, to bow in we sit in seiza with our weapons in front of us. We take several deep breaths before bowing twice, clapping twice, and then touching our foreheads to the mat until the sensei asks us to rise.
^_^
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