[steven]

I don't know if this will make it any clearer, but Yokoso is like what you'd see when you enter a town or city or amusement parks (as MMM pointed out) and that kind of thing.

When you go to a store they say irashaimase, or some variation of that.

When I said I've been told "yokoso" at certain small town shops I meant that those people were in a sense welcoming me to Japan because they probably just assume I'm here for a vacation or something like that.

So while both of those words could be listed in a dictionary as "welcome", their usage is quite different.

Another thing... I feel like I've heard "maido" when entering a small shop or cafe before though too. I've heard people use that when they answer the phone or when they want to say "thank you" and stuff like that... but I think I've heard it a couple of times where irashaimase would be said. People don't usually use maido around here so I don't really know the ins and outs of its usage.