Breakfast in the Dark: A Morning at Sanso Tensui in Hita, Oita

The rain last night must have been quite heavy. On the final morning of our stay at Sanso Tensui, I woke up at 6:00 AM to use the restroom. By 7:00 AM, I was ready to soak in the private open-air bath attached to our room. However, when I tried to turn on the lights, the switch only made clicking sounds, and no light came on. It wasn’t just the lights in our room—Wi-Fi, TV, and everything else were out. It was a power outage. Upon investigating further, we realized the outage wasn’t limited to our room; the entire facility was affected. There was no point in panicking, so I decided to enjoy the open-air bath. Thankfully, the hot spring water was still flowing. Even after an hour, there was no sign of the power returning. My husband took out a flashlight from the closet and checked how the automatic toilet was functioning. Since we had a private bath in our room, we decided to use the hot spring water to flush the toilet manually. While I was flustered, my husband calmly demonstrated his military survival skills. At breakfast, I noticed that none of the Japanese guests had brought flashlights; they were likely using their smartphone lights. My husband was curious about how guests without private baths managed their toilets and suggested I ask them. Of course, I couldn’t bring myself to ask such a question. Despite the darkness, breakfast was served as usual. The staff prepared everything efficiently, which made me think power outages might be common here. However, during checkout, they explained that the four-hour outage from 6:30 AM was unprecedented and apologized for the inconvenience. No one seemed angry about having breakfast in the dark. The only disappointment was not being able to visually enjoy the beautifully presented dishes. The pickles were so delicious that I almost went for a second serving of rice. The breakfast was so perfect despite the lack of lighting that the only regret was not being able to use the coffee machine. I hesitantly asked if it was possible to have coffee, and the staff kindly offered to prepare drip coffee if I could wait. I gratefully accepted. The staff must have had a challenging morning relying on their smartphone lights, yet they managed to smoothly serve breakfast to three rounds of guests. In the end, the power outage made us appreciate the excellence of the inn even more. We left with a strong desire to return for another stay.