As the last light set on Kiyomuzudera, the crows came home to roost high above the crush of people who had come to take their photograph in front of the famous temple. Both the fall colors and the crowd were spectacular. 

The crowd thinned as gravity and the desire to find someplace warm and quiet pulled us back down the hill past the souvenir shops and the tour bus parking lot. Turning north and then east we walked down Yaskadori past restaurants that, rather than having plastic replicas of the dishes you could find inside, had people greeting customers as they got out of their cabs. 

Searching for Cafe Opal we were instead drawn moth-like through a gate lit by a paper lantern and found ourselves amongst a herd of pigs. Pigs of stone, painted pigs on wood, metal pigs, and tiny pigs of clay. These weren’t your normal domesticated swine, but wild and hairy pigs. Fierce guardian pigs. As with nearly everything in Japan, there was also the kawaii version. The cute wild pig. Why all the pigs?