Indian history in Tokyo temple

The Renkoji Temple is a lot smaller than other grand Buddhist shrines in Japan. In front of the gate, in a very serene setting, is the bust of Netaji. Aseem Chhabra reports from Tokyo. 

On all my travels abroad, I always look for signs of India. Last week while I was in Tokyo, I heard about a Buddhist shrine where there is a statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. I knew I had to go there.
Finding online directions to the shrine was not difficult. Despite the language issues, it is easy to find online information about Tokyo in English.
Last year I had taken a couple of friends on a day trip outside Tokyo, to the legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s grave. It had taken us a while to find our way. Netaji’s statue is in Tokyo itself. So it had to be easier to get there.

For various reasons I was only able to go to the Renkoji Temple -- where the statue stands -- on the last day of my trip. TheTokyo subway system is quite easy to follow.
Despite the very foreign sounding Japanese names, the subway maps are available in English. There are announcements in Japanese and English. And if one is lucky, one can find an English speaker willing to give directions. The Japanese people struggle with their English, but they are very friendly and polite.
My friend Ben Lopez and I took the Maranouchi Line to the Higashi-Koenji station. Upon exiting, we took a left turn and immediately ran into a South Asian-looking man, who was handing out flyers for an Indian restaurant called Indus.
Turns out Mithilesh Sharma was Nepali, from outside Kathmandu. He had been in Japan for six years. Before that he worked in Noida, outside Delhi. His Hindi was definitely better than his English.