邪魔 and cats

[hwesta]

When I encounter a word I don’t know in Japanese, one of my techniques is to use google.jp to image search for it. The goal is to keep from translating the word into English and to get a sense of what it mean in Japanese instead.

The other day I came across 邪魔じゃま and googled it.

Thought process: Hmm, what does this mean? Something about cats sitting on keyboards? That doesn’t seem right from the source context. What’s that in the bottom right? I recognize that board game, it’s Saboteur!

So 邪魔じゃま might mean sabotage or obstruct or hinder, but it’s apparently quintessentially cat-on-keyboard!