Technology "No one loves" except that Japanese, and Londoners

No one loves NFC, except for Londoners, most of whom seem to use an Oyster card for the train. Oh, and people living in urban areas in Japan. The Suica and Pasmo cards, like the Oyster card, are used for the entire train and almost all the bus network in greater Tokyo (up to 90 minutes from the centre on non-shinkansen trains, well outside Tokyo proper). Many of the vending machines near and in stations accept them as do the stores in and around stations. Other payment systems such as the Edy and ID card systems are accepted by many restaurants and convenience stores. The loyalty card for Yodobashi Camera can be a swipe card or stored on your mobile phone. The trick is not to try to force everyone into a one size, one scheme system, but develop a variety of options. The mobile-embedded cards can be linked to a credit card account (or you can have a joint credit card and Suica card) or can be linked to the mobile phone account. Unfortunately you can't have an anonymous phone-embedded card because there's no way to charge it at the station (you have to physically enter the cards into the machines to charge them which is fine for the separate cards and the credit card-based ones but no good for a mobi). If you want to have fewer things to carry around (and lose) then embedding the card in your mobile, which you probably carry all the time anyway, is fine. If not, you can have a separate anonymous card with replacements purchasable everywhere.