While talking with my wife the other day, in Japanese of course, I suddenly paused in search of a word. The word was right on the tip of my tongue, just there, but I just couldn't come up with it. Really frustrating moment, isn't it? Then she said, "Can't you think of its English word, either?" "Oh?" I tried shifting gears. "Well, uh, it's...LOOTING!" "What does it mean?" "It's like...a mob steal things from stores during a disaster or the like...." She said several Japanese words to it, but none sounded right somehow, when I finally caught it!

The word was: 略奪 (ryaku-datsu)

Phew...

Now you may wonder in what context I had to use the word then. Well, it's...just...at the edge of my memory, but...