Tokyo diary: Rugby, neon and a 1.5m knife

The All Blacks beating Australia in Tokyo was great spectacle last night. The haka was performed against a backdrop of glinting stars, flashes going off in thousands of cameras.
The Kiwi bloke sitting next to me at the game gave a running commentary throughout as to what the referee should do or should not have done. He was emphatic and unforgiving. You wouldn't have wanted to argue with him. Only at the end did he reveal that he himself was a referee.

The stadium of 57,000 looked about 98 per cent full. Rugby ambassador Jonah Lomu spoke briefly to the crowd before the game and got the superstar treatment. McCaw and Carter got the biggest roars from the crowd when the team was introduced.

I pulled out my former trusty Sony Cybershot when the teams ran out onto the field but before I took the first picture, the run-out-of-battery sign flashed momentarily, and it all went dark. Not a single picture.

I shall be heading to the Sony Store in the Ginza today on my way out to Narita to see if they sell the lithium battery charger I need. If they don't have it, goodness knows who will.

I met an Auckland couple wondering around the Ginza after the game and as close followers of the sport, they were disappointed in it as an example of rugby excellence. I just loved the occasion and the win.

They came up during the week after winning a grab-a-seat auction with Air NZ - $1700 for two sets of airfares and game tickets.

The Ginza is a great area of Tokyo - the shopping heart in a nation of shoppers. It's probably not to everyone's tastes but I have loved the taxi rides through the Ginza back to my more modest hotel here because it is lit up with dazzling neon signs.

The taxis are great too. The drivers open and close the back doors automatically when you want to get out or in. Every car has one of those GPS things.

On the ride home last night there were long queues of young people outside some of the popular night clubs, many of which were putting on Halloween parties.

There are very cute little eateries around here as well as 24-hour supermarkets, a café and a McDonalds which sells a very nice Teriyaki McBurger and iced tea. Smoking is still allowed but there isn't much of it in this part of town.

It was a very long day yesterday with a 5.30am start to make the fish markets by 6.30am. The tuna was amazing. Huge, huge fish. We stopped at one shop to see one old hand slice up a tuna with absolute precision with a 1.5 metre knife. His family had been in the trade for 150 years and eight generations Key was told. One son had just finished university and was back working on the shop floor.

Next it was on to a private school that send a class a year over to New Zealand and Key was greeted by an amazing haka from the young men there. I took a photo but really should have put a tape on it instead.

John Key was asked there by one very chubby kid who had played prop for Tawa College if he would take him to the game seeing as he couldn't get a ticket. Key didn't quite do an Aroha on him (he took Aroha from McGechan Close up to Waitangi) but he did get the embassy to get the boy a ticket.

A fan at the game in Tokyo. Photo / AP