Well, apparently, all the demons in Wizard 101 are elephants. Who knew? The Plague Oni went down in the concentrated fire of three wizards after a long, long instance.
I found out why Moo Shu is so dead for me. I was in a low population realm — AKA server. Unlike SOME games, you can change servers any time you like just by selecting your new server from a list. Wow, changing servers without having $25-50 deducted from my checking account. How is that even possible?
Anyway, I selected the most crowded server, Ambrose, and Moo Shu was suddenly full of life. I finished up my Kishibe Village quests, and sat myself down in front of Shiritakai Temple while I went and got a snack. When I returned, there were bunches of people (um, three) in front of the instance pads; I stepped on, they did the same, and we were ported into the instance.