I am attracted by Japanese cuisines during my visit to Kyoto this summer, and I really enjoyed walking by the Kamo River after the ぎおんまつり shows. During my undergraduate studies, I've learned a lot about the religious cultures of Japan, particularly Zen Buddhism and Shinto. I wish to learn Japanese in order to be able to understand their scriptures and literature better one day. My blog name "STAND ALONE COMPLEX" comes from one of my favorite animations GHOST IN THE SHELL( 攻殻機動隊), which refers to the phenomenon that multiple individuals act in similar manners without any prior coordinations or even common backgrounds, and it somehow overlaps with my most recent research topic from graduate studies in neuroscience. I was impressed by the use of language in this animation as it incorporates/invents a bunch of words that don't normally appear in a casual setting, and it uses mostly Chinese characters as the titles of each episode such as 全自動資本主義（Full-automatic Capitalis...