STAND UP FALL DOWN, STAND UP FALL DOWN, REPEAT

I finally did it today. I rented a stand up paddle board. Believe it or not this is the first day since we've been here that the water was flat enough for flatwater Alex.

However, frankly, it wasn't flat enough, and I spent the first half hour I had the board going into the water and climbing back up on the board. I am going to be so sore tomorrow.  Plus, I can hardly get up from the floor on flat land.  Note the grace in standing up.  

And by that time I was getting tired and I thought I don't even want to keep this board for the whole hour, I'm going to go turn it in. And then while I was sitting on the board, I thought, "what's wrong with this picture?"

I have good balance, I can stand on the board in flatwater, I can sail a windsurfer in sort of choppy water, what am I doing wrong.?

What I'm doing wrong, is I'm trying to stand up and stand still, instead of moving the board forward.  As soon as I had this little epiphany, I started paddling the board forward and went all around the beach in and out of the waves, tried to ride the waves, though not too successfully, and never fell in the water again.  

This water looks a lot flatter than it felt, by the way.  Even while paddle boarding successfully, it just isn't as much fun as windsurfing, but I was never able to get up on a windsurfer in the ocean.  SUP is basically more work than fun, at least at my level.  

Of course doing this involved standing out in the sun on the board for over an hour with basically no sunscreen, due to the fact that I washed it off in the first 200 falls.  

John got sunburned too, because he was trying to get pictures of me and he stood there for a very long time because who knew when I was going to finally get up and stay up for more than two or three seconds.

A few days ago I bought some tourist trap skin treatments, which were so expensive that they gave me a free facial so they could sell me more stuff.  The woman who is selling the stuff could sell ants at a picnic.  But I managed to resist.  The facial was pretty wonderful, I have to admit.  

The facial was pretty wonderful, I have to admit, and I am obviously gorgeous.  

We had dinner at Merukame, a restaurant that specializes in fresh, made on the spot, udon noodles.  The place has a giant line most times of the day, but it moves pretty fast.  

And the noodles and broth are delicious.  It's incredibly cheap, too.