Christmas wish item

If anyone is lost for ideas as to what to get me for Christmas, here it is!  The skyray turns ordinary freefalling into freeFLYING.  And everybody knows i'm just sick to death of boring old freefalling.  A guy crossed the English channel with one of these babies in 14 minutes.  He was going 250km/h.  That's faster than a peregrine falcon dives for prey.  Please help my commute to be a whole lot faster and more fun!

I may or may not have mentioned on here that i was rear-ended as i drove back home from a neighbouring town about two months ago.  My neck was sore for a few days, but nothing major. Well, the other day as i was stretching, i tweaked my neck muscle, which drastically reduced my range of motion.  I was a bit worried, and asked a friend at work to book me a massage appointment.  

I rode out on thursday afternoon in the sunshine, and, following a map, went down a skinny little street, barely wide enough for one car to go down, and ended up at a dumpy little warehouse with all kinds of rusty junk in the yard.  On the window was a small sticker that said, "manual therapy".  I surmised that this was the place, and went to knock on the door.  The guy turned out to be a professional chiropractor and massage therapist, but since he didn't speak a word of english, i couldn't ask him about his humble workplace. 

The massage felt excellent and very remedial; my neck popped and my back cracked, and in the end, i felt limber and happy.  It was a very interesting, distinctly 'japanese' experience.  I think i'll go every couple of weeks to get this knot in my back sorted out. 

I was perusing an online art gallery today and came across this nice El Greco painting of St. John the Evangelist.  He doesn't really appear as i imagine him to be, but then, who does?  I don't know who he's looking at, but i would guess that the chalice represents the eucharist, and his left hand is inviting one and all to partake.  It's been a while since art history class.  This painting is strange to me.  Every time i look at it, his head seems smaller and smaller in proportion to his body.  Plus, when i read the words above his head (the blog words), his hair appears to move a little in my peripheral vision.  El Greco has a very interesting style.  The hands are almost grotesque!    

Tonight i went out for sushi with some students.  They picked me up at our apartment, (Mandy was in Nagoya with some of her own students--end of the year gatherings are common here) and we went to a restaurant in which the huge variety of sushi dishes drift past the tables on little conveyers.  One going left and the other going right.  I couldn't stop watching these little platefuls of eel and raw tuna and shrimp (with eyes staring out at me) and other goodies, for about 5 minutes.  My hosts thought it was hilarious.  I tried the eel and some shrimp, but couldn't do the raw fish.  Not just yet.  Call me a menno, but it's just a little much for me at this point.  Eel was shockingly mild.  
My miniature room is growing, and is starting to look a bit unkempt and crowded.  I don't have any skill with feng shui, especially for miniatures.  Maybe i could hire a designer to spruce it up a bit, make it look more inviting.  

If you feel like being musically charmed, try searching for a video on youtube called "chinese translation" by M. Ward.  Very cute and it's a good song.