The Story
After finishing Pachinko, there was a search I kept typing into the browser without really planning to.
First thing: I thought this was a Netflix show. It's not — it's an Apple TV+ original. Turns out I wasn't the only one confused.
Ikaino, the Osaka neighborhood where Sunja's family lives, was next. Pull up a map today and it doesn't exist.
That's because the name itself was erased in a 1973 administrative reorganization. All that's left now is what's called Ikuno.
The Yeongdo boarding house isn't real either — the production built the whole thing from scratch at Yangdong Village, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Gyeongju.
부산항 — 파친코 1부 배경, 영도에서 오사카로 떠나는 관문 · Wikimedia Commons
But the sea Sunja walks along is real. Taejongdae, Gamji Beach — both officially confirmed filming locations from the Busan Film Commission.
Here's the part that made me rethink things — the first man Sunja falls for isn't Isak, it's Hansu. She only accepts Isak's proposal and leaves for Osaka after learning Hansu already has a family.
Which means the 'secret' surrounding Noa's birth isn't really a secret to Sunja at all — she's known from the start. It's Noa who doesn't.
It also hit differently, knowing that after Isak is arrested for his convictions, it's Sunja and her sister-in-law Kyunghee who keep the family fed by selling kimchi. Suddenly it made sense why this show spends so much time on women's labor.
Noa and Mozasu face the same discrimination and choose completely different paths. Noa tries to be recognized as the perfect Japanese citizen; Mozasu fights back and carves out his own place in the pachinko business.
Once you know where that choice eventually leads Noa, the earlier scenes of him trying so hard to be the 'model student' read completely differently.
이쿠노구청, 오사카 — 이카이노(조선인 마을)가 있던 현재의 이쿠노구 · Wikimedia Commons
By 1989 Tokyo, it's grandson Solomon's turn. Educated in America and working at an international finance firm, he's handed a deal that requires buying out an elderly woman named Han Geumja's land.
Solomon has achieved exactly the success his family dreamed of — and yet he's forced to ask himself what he's erasing, and whose memory, to get it. I think that's what this show actually wanted to say.
Violence against Koreans during the Great Kanto Earthquake shows up in the background too. You can tell the show is trying hard not to sensationalize it, which somehow makes it land harder.
Following this family across four generations, you realize it's not really an immigration story — it's a story about people who had their choices taken away and still had to choose something.
If I make it to Busan, I want to walk that stretch of coast at Taejongdae first — the same water Sunja actually walked.
And in Osaka, I'd want to go looking for what's left of Ikaino in today's Ikuno Koreatown. Walking a neighborhood that doesn't exist on any map hits differently once you've watched this show.
Where the Scene Really Happened
Top 5 locations
부산 어시장
FILMED HERE
태종대 (부산 영도구)
FILMED HERE
감지해변 (부산 영도구)
FILMED HERE
자갈치시장 (부산 중구)
FILMED HERE
좌천동 매축지마을 (부산 동구)
FILMED HERE
All Pachinko locations (204)
영도 (부산광역시 영도구)
Sunja's hometown, and the place the entire series ultimately returns to in memory. Connected to the mainland by bridges, Yeongdo has long been home to shipbuilding and fishing workers — the backdrop for Hoonie and Yangjin's boarding house, and for young Sunja moving between the sea, the market, and her neighbors. It is also where elderly Sunja returns in 1989. The show treats Yeongdo not as a simple nostalgia backdrop but as a place that keeps asking who truly belongs here.
영도 하숙집 (작품 속 설정 공간)
The boarding house Hoonie and Yangjin run on income from sea work and market labor. It's where they raise Sunja, the one child who survived after several losses, and where the comings and goings of lodgers bring the gossip and mobility typical of a port town. It's also where the ailing pastor Baek Isak later stays on his way to Osaka — the meeting that changes the course of Sunja's life.
영도 앞바다
The sea where young Sunja learns to dive for shellfish, and where elderly Sunja stands again in 1989. One of the series' most symbolic natural spaces, where the beginning of a life and its return overlap on the same tide.
부산 어시장
Where Sunja and Hansu first meet. Hansu, who dominates the market as a fish broker, shows Sunja an unfamiliar world through his sharp clothes, wide connections, and money and power. Small daily events — fish prices, taxes, checkpoints — quietly carry the weight of colonial rule and discrimination.
부산항
The threshold of migration from colonial Korea to Japan. The point of departure where Sunja and Isak board the ferry for Osaka, and a symbol of migration, borders, and farewell that runs through the entire series.
부산 장터 골목
A market-alley scene of daily economic life in colonial Busan, where rice-cake sellers, fish merchants, and newspaper boys pass through. The market setting reveals how information, class, and gendered labor divisions moved through a colonial city.
하숙집 부엌
The interior space where Yangjin and Sunja's labor and care accumulate. It foreshadows the kimchi-selling scenes Sunja and Kyunghee later run in Osaka — an origin point for the show's portrayal of women's labor.
하숙집 마당
A communal space where the daily lives of lodgers and family intersect. Through the friction of transient port-town guests living alongside the family, it shows a sense of temporary community distinct from a settled extended-family narrative.
영도 해안 절벽길
A coastal-cliff space that visually condenses the sea, poverty, and isolation. Since exact scene-by-scene matching hasn't been completed, this site introduces it only as a candidate location.
조선–일본 연락선
The ferry symbolizing Sunja and Isak's migration, the turning point where the family crosses a national border. Portrayed as the threshold where they leave behind a familiar language, sea, and family to become migrants with a new status.
오사카 (일본 오사카부)
The key city where Sunja's family settles and continues life as ethnic Koreans in Japan. Centered on Ikaino (today's Ikuno), a living community forms around church, market, factory, and school, and it's also the stage for the later generations, Mozasu and Solomon.
이카이노 조선인 마을
The living community where the family's housing, labor, church, and discrimination all concentrate. The name "Ikaino" disappeared from official maps after an administrative reorganization in 1973, but today's Ikuno-ku carries on the same community. This site distinguishes "old Ikaino" and "today's Ikuno" as the same place at different points in time.
요셉·경희의 집
Where Sunja and Isak first take shelter after arriving in Osaka. In a cramped, poor Korean neighborhood, the four of them share one house, splitting money, food, faith, and housework — a microcosm of the early settlement community of ethnic Koreans in Japan.
오사카 조선인 교회
Where Isak's ministry intersects with both community relief and colonial surveillance. Colonial authority suspects and watches even the gatherings, language, and religion of the Korean community — setting up the moment Isak is arrested for his activities here.
김치 장사터
Where Sunja and Kyunghee rebuild the family's collapsing livelihood after Isak's arrest. Choosing survival over social propriety, this labor is portrayed not as mere money-making but as the turning point where the women become the family's economic agents.
오사카 시장
A space where food supplies, rationing, and the survival economy of the ethnic community intersect. As the war deepens, food shortages worsen and the market's scenery changes along with it.
오사카 공장
The dangerous working environment where Yoseb and Korean laborers work — a space revealing the reality of migrant labor that propped up the bottom rung of Osaka's industrialization.
오사카 학교
The educational space where Noa and Mozasu experience discrimination and pressure to assimilate. Facing the same discrimination, this is where the fork in the road begins — Noa choosing perfect assimilation, Mozasu choosing to fight back directly.
오사카 구치소
A space where Isak's arrest and the violence of colonial power are concentrated. This is where the colonial logic that treats faith and community activity as political suspicion appears most starkly.
오사카 병원
A space where illness, childbirth, injury, and family caregiving intersect, showing what the family had to endure to protect one another amid postwar healthcare disparities.
오사카 기차역
A transit node for evacuation, return, and family separation. As the war deepens, the expressions and purposes of those passing through this station keep changing.
오사카 방공호
A collective space of air-raid and wartime survival, appearing prominently in Season 2 as the backdrop for scenes where the terror of the Osaka air raids seeps into the family's daily life.
나가노 농촌 피난지
Where the family relocates to escape air raids and encounters new labor and new forms of discrimination. The exact place name still needs verification, but it's set in the countryside of Nagano Prefecture.
피난지 농가
A living space where Sunja's family and farmers exchange food and labor. Here we see that evacuation doesn't guarantee safety — met with the wary looks of unfamiliar residents.
피난지 학교
Where Noa and Mozasu's wartime education and peer relationships unfold — a different kind of exclusion and adaptation among children than what they faced in the city.
도쿄 (일본 도쿄도)
The center of Solomon's 1989 finance, real-estate, and identity storyline. After returning from his education in America, this is where Solomon experiences a different kind of exclusion from the family's older survival economy.
도쿄 금융회사
Where the competition and organizational power dynamics between Solomon, Naomi, and Tom intersect. It's where the racial and national hierarchies operating even within international financial elites become most visible.
한금자 소유 토지
A piece of real estate where development profit and lived memory collide. The company sees only price and performance, but for Han Geumja, this land is proof of a life spent enduring discrimination and labor in Japan.
솔로몬의 아파트
A space showing the isolation of a successful third-generation migrant and his distance from family. Glamorous yet empty, this apartment shows what Solomon has gained and lost at the same time.
도쿄 호텔·회의실
The stage for international financial deals and power negotiations, where calculation and exclusion pass back and forth beneath a veneer of smiles and courtesy.
도쿄 식당
A space where company, family, and romantic relationships shift into private conversation, mixing the language of public negotiation with private emotion at the same table.
요시이 사업장
A connecting point of the postwar pachinko, real-estate, and organized economy. The point where Solomon, trying to escape his family's old survival economy, ends up drawn into an even larger structure of capital and violence.
파친코장
Where Mozasu's livelihood and the show's title metaphor of probability and control come together. One of the few industries open to ethnic Koreans in Japan, and a metaphor for a life where the player believes they're choosing, but the machine's structure decides the outcome.
파친코 기계실
A space that visualizes the adjustment of the machine's pins and the "unfair game" beneath the surface — concretely showing that the odds in pachinko are never purely random.
요코하마 (일본 가나가와현)
Where Noa's new life, anonymity, and a cemetery of memory come together. In the novel, this is the city where Noa leaves Osaka to try to live an entirely new identity.
이삭의 묘지
Where the memories of Sunja, Noa, and Uchida, and the family's secrets, all meet. Some of the novel's quietest yet heaviest scenes unfold here.
와세다대학 (작품 속 노아의 학업 공간)
A symbol of Noa's academic pursuit and his desire to assimilate into Japanese society. Noa's wish to be accepted through flawless achievement takes its most concentrated form on this campus.
뉴욕 (미국)
The city that shapes Solomon's education, international outlook, and his history before returning to Japan. It hints at the backstory behind Solomon, who learned American financial language, becoming a "tool" for the company once he returns to Tokyo.
제주 (한수의 원작 배경)
The roots of Hansu's background and the migration/power narrative in the novel. Not given much weight in the TV series, but for novel readers it's a clue to understanding how Hansu's character was formed.
평양 (한반도 북부)
Explains the family and Christian background of Isak and Yoseb. The Baek family's roots in faith begin here, later carrying through to their church activities in Osaka.
태종대 (부산 영도구)
A symbolic setting for Sunja's diving and sea scenes, and for the Busan storyline overall. One of the filming locations officially confirmed by the Busan Film Commission — the craggy cliffs and deep blue sea shape the series' emotional backdrop.
감지해변 (부산 영도구)
The filming location for the Yeongdo coastal scenes. A quiet beach near Taejongdae, easy to visit together.
자갈치시장 (부산 중구)
The filming location for young Sunja's market memories and the Busan market scenes. Korea's largest seafood market, still alive today with lively auctions and merchants' calls.
좌천동 매축지마을 (부산 동구)
A filming location recreating the alleyways and housing of modern-era Busan. The distinctive alley layout, formed on reclaimed land during the colonial period, survives largely intact and is often used for period-drama filming.
범일동 구름다리 (부산 동구)
A location for colonial-era Busan alley and movement scenes. The old stepped alleys and bridge preserve the terrain of that period.
동래별장 (부산 동래구)
A filming location for both indoor and outdoor period-drama scenes. Its well-preserved modern hanok architecture has made it a favorite for interior filming in many period productions.
영도구청 (부산 영도구)
A filming location connected to scenes of elderly Sunja confirming her family grave and hometown. As an administrative space, it appears to have been used for scenes where official process meets personal memory.
센텀시티역 (부산 해운대구)
A filming location for present-day urban movement scenes, used to capture the modern Busan cityscape as a contrast to 1989 Tokyo.
벡스코 (부산 해운대구)
A filming location for modern business and city scenes. An international-scale convention center used as a contemporary backdrop fitting Solomon's international-finance storyline.
부산영락공원 (부산 금정구)
A filming location for grave and memory scenes, connected to elderly Sunja confronting traces of her family once again.
양동마을 (경북 경주시)
A location used to recreate the atmosphere of the Yeongdo boarding house and traditional village. A UNESCO World Heritage Joseon-era traditional village, its use confirmed through production interviews.
순천드라마촬영장 (전남 순천시)
A public filming set used for modern-era street and residential scenes. Officially guided by the Korea Tourism Organization as a Pachinko filming location, it recreates streets from various eras, from the colonial period through the 1980s.
논산 선샤인스튜디오 (충남 논산시)
A studio used for period-drama street and architectural set filming. Officially confirmed by the Korea Tourism Organization as a Pachinko filming location, featuring both modern-city streets and Japanese-style house sets.
목포 로케이션 권역 (전남 목포시)
A region mentioned as a Korean filming area. Specific locations and exact scenes haven't been fully matched yet, so this site introduces it only as a regional candidate.
합천 로케이션 권역 (경남 합천군)
A region mentioned as a Korean filming area, still requiring detailed scene matching.
안동 로케이션 권역 (경북 안동시)
A region mentioned as a Korean filming area, still requiring detailed scene matching.
대전 로케이션 권역
A region mentioned as a Korean filming area, still requiring detailed scene matching.
밴쿠버 촬영 권역 (캐나다 브리티시컬럼비아)
A production base for Japan, city, and studio scenes. Thanks to tax incentives and production infrastructure, many Hollywood and global streaming productions film in Vancouver, and Pachinko used its studios as a major production hub.
밴쿠버 스튜디오 세트
A set area recreating 1980s Japanese interiors. A key production hub that allowed filming the 1989 finance-company and apartment interior scenes without traveling to Tokyo.
브리티시컬럼비아 야외 권역
A supplementary production location for outdoor Korea/Japan scenes. A candidate region still requiring further verification.
부산근현대역사관 (부산 중구)
A fact-checking anchor for understanding the port opening, colonial Busan, and urban change. Housed in the former Busan branch of the Oriental Development Company, it shows how the city of Busan became a hub of the colonial economy.
국립일제강제동원역사관 (부산 남구)
An educational site for understanding forced labor mobilization and the imperial labor system — a national facility offering broader context for the historical background of migrant labor depicted in Pachinko.
한국이민사박물관 (인천)
A place to compare the history of Korean overseas migration and diaspora. Seeing migration histories in other directions (Hawaii, the Americas) alongside the Korea-Japan migration in Pachinko gives a fuller picture of the diaspora theme.
인천개항박물관 (인천)
A place showing the historical context of ports, the opening of Korea, and imperial-era movement.
인천항
A place to compare, alongside Busan Port, the modern-era migration routes out of the Korean peninsula.
부산항 제1부두 (부산)
A place carrying the memory of modern-era port infrastructure and movement/logistics. Public access may vary by period, so checking ahead is advised.
부산항국제여객터미널 (부산)
A place to compare today's Korea-Japan sea travel with the old ferry route. Passenger ferries between Busan and Japan still operate from here today.
영도대교 (부산)
A bridge connecting the memories of movement, wartime refuge, and industry in this port city. Also famous as a meeting point for Korean War refugees; it still lifts open at a set time today.
용두산공원 (부산)
A place to overlook modern Busan's old downtown and harbor. Climbing Busan Tower gives a sweeping view of Yeongdo and the port.
40계단 문화관광테마거리 (부산)
A place complementing the memory of urban migration, war, and survival. Famous as a meeting spot where Korean War refugees searched for separated family members.
보수동책방골목 (부산)
A place linking modern urban life with the culture of records and reading. The alley began as secondhand-book stalls during the Korean War refugee period.
국제시장 (부산)
A place extending the market survival-economy and Jagalchi-area tour. Formed by Korean War refugees to make a living, it's also the setting of the film "Ode to My Father" (Gukje Market).
부평깡통시장 (부산)
A place to compare the postwar market economy of migration and survival. At night it transforms into the Bupyeong Night Market, offering a variety of street food.
초량이바구길 (부산)
A place complementing the oral history and daily life of hillside-road (sanbok-doro) migrants. Its narrow alleys and stairways along the hillside preserve the living spaces of modern-era migrant workers.
부산역
The arrival point for today's tours and a link to modern movement history — the most practical starting point for a Pachinko-themed tour.
흰여울문화마을 (부산 영도구)
A linked destination for experiencing Yeongdo's coastal scenery. Not a direct filming location for the show, but the place that most vividly captures the mood of the Yeongdo coast.
태종대 전망대
The safe, official viewing point for visiting the Taejongdae filming location — lets you see the whole view safely without climbing down the cliff.
태종대 영도등대
A place offering visual context for the sea, sea routes, and borders. The view of the sea from the lighthouse naturally overlaps with the series' themes of migration and return.
감천문화마을 (부산)
A place to compare migrant housing and hillside urbanism. Not directly related to the show, but useful for understanding the housing history of Korean War refugee hillside neighborhoods.
부산박물관
A primer-style place surveying Busan's history from ancient times through the modern era.
임시수도기념관 (부산)
A place to compare wartime-and-migration-city Busan across generations, showing records from when Busan served as South Korea's provisional capital during the Korean War.
제주해녀박물관 (제주)
A place to compare Sunja's diving scenes with women's maritime labor — though note this museum covers Jeju haenyeo culture specifically, distinct from Yeongdo's divers in Busan.
제주4·3평화공원 (제주)
Potentially connected to Hansu's Jeju background and modern-era violence, though not directly related to the show.
서울역사박물관
A place to compare urban and population movement in the colonial period.
대한민국역사박물관 (서울)
A place showing the national-history context of the colonial period, liberation, and postwar economy.
서대문형무소역사관 (서울)
A place for comparing the colonial system of surveillance, imprisonment, and resistance.
독립기념관 (충남 천안시)
A place linked to official historical records of colonial rule and the independence movement.
식민지역사박물관 (서울)
A place explaining the structure of colonial rule and everyday discrimination.
오사카 이쿠노 코리아타운
A place to compare today's ethnic-Korean-in-Japan community with the history of Ikaino. Korean grocery stores and restaurants are still densely packed here, letting you feel the life of the Zainichi Korean community firsthand.
쓰루하시역 (오사카)
A gateway to the Ikuno Koreatown and a base for exploring the Zainichi Korean commercial district. The narrow shopping streets radiating from the station are themselves a historical landscape.
미유키모리텐진구 (오사카)
A place explaining the layered local history surrounding the Koreatown area.
오사카역사박물관
A place showing the context of the city's formation and Osaka before and after the war.
피스 오사카
A place for learning about the Osaka air raids and wartime civilian harm.
오사카성
A place providing general context for the city center and the history of empire and war.
오사카항
A place to compare Korea-Japan sea migration with entry into an industrial city.
사쿠라지마·오사카만 산업권 (오사카)
A candidate region showing the spatial context of factory labor and port industry.
이쿠노구청 (오사카)
A base for checking administrative and multicultural information about today's Zainichi Korean living area.
와세다대학교 (실제 캠퍼스, 도쿄)
The real campus behind Noa's academic setting in the novel. Visitors should follow campus visiting rules.
신오쿠보 코리아타운 (도쿄)
A place to compare today's Korean commercial district in Tokyo with the changes since 1989.
주일한국문화원 (도쿄)
A place connected to Korea-Japan cultural and diaspora exhibitions and events.
도쿄도 부흥기념관
A place presenting official memorial records of the Great Kanto Earthquake and urban disaster.
요코아미초공원 (도쿄)
A public space for the memory of victims of the Great Kanto Earthquake and the war.
간토대지진 조선인 희생 관련 추모지 (도쿄·가나가와)
A memorial space commemorating the victims of rumors and mob violence directed at Koreans during the Great Kanto Earthquake. This site presents both official and civic-organization sources side by side, and follows the principle of never treating this site as a tourist commodity.
요코하마개항자료관
A place showing the history of the port, foreign residents, and modern urban formation.
요코하마항 개항기념회관
A place to compare Noa's anonymous urban life with the context of a port city.
요코하마항
A place showing the network of port cities connecting to Busan and Osaka.
고베항
A place to compare Korea-Japan sea migration with an industrial port.
시모노세키항 (야마구치)
A key hub in the Korea-Japan migration history and the Busan-Shimonoseki ferry line, which was the leading route for Korea-Japan migration during the colonial period.
하카타항 (후쿠오카)
A place to compare the Korean peninsula-Kyushu migration route.
후쿠오카아시아미술관
A place linking modern East Asian culture and diaspora exhibitions.
국립역사민속박물관 (지바)
A place linking research on modern Japanese life, empire, and migration.
재일한인역사자료관 (도쿄)
A core link to primary sources on Zainichi Korean history, discrimination, and daily life — one of the most important places to verify the history Pachinko depicts through primary materials.
오사카 인권박물관 관련 아카이브
A place providing educational materials on discrimination and human rights. The current facility and operating status need further confirmation.
교토 코리아타운·히가시쿠조 권역
A place to compare Zainichi Korean settlement areas. Not a direct location from the show.
우토로평화기념관 (교토 우지시)
A place showing the history of Zainichi Korean labor, housing, and community — a facility commemorating the long struggle and memory of the Utoro neighborhood, formed by forced-labor migrants who settled there.
순천촬영장 1960년대 읍내거리
A detailed exploration node within the modern-Korea street set.
순천촬영장 달동네 골목
A candidate space used to visualize poverty, housing, and community.
순천촬영장 학교 세트
A candidate location connected to school and colonial/postwar education scenes.
순천촬영장 시장 세트
A candidate location connected to market livelihood scenes.
순천촬영장 주택 골목
An area capable of recreating the Osaka living quarters.
선샤인스튜디오 근대거리
A set for filming modern-era city street scenes.
선샤인스튜디오 일본식 가옥
A candidate for recreating Japanese living spaces.
선샤인스튜디오 상점가
A candidate for recreating market and shop scenes.
선샤인스튜디오 역·교통 세트
A candidate production space for movement and train scenes.
양동마을 한옥군
The traditional landscape around Sunja's hometown and boarding house.
양동마을 골목
A recreation of Yeongdo village's paths and daily movement.
양동마을 들판
The landscape for rural, seasonal, and labor scenes.
밴쿠버 일본거리 세트
A recreation of 1980s Tokyo/Osaka city exteriors.
밴쿠버 금융사무실 세트
Production of Solomon's bank and meeting-room scenes.
밴쿠버 파친코장 세트
Realizing Mozasu's business and the show's title metaphor.
Apple TV Press 파친코 아카이브
The primary reference for official episodes, images, cast, and press materials — the first official source to check for information about the show.
Media Res 제작사
The production company for verifying the series' production, rights, and credits.
Blue Marble Pictures
Provides Season 2 production-partner and producing information.
부산영상위원회
The key institution behind Busan filming locations, permits, and location evidence — the source that lets this site mark the ten Busan filming locations as "confirmed."
한국영상위원회·KOFIC 로케이션 자료
Public materials for verifying filming regions and sets.
이민진 작가 공식 사이트
The official reference for the novel, its translations, and the author's career.
Grand Central Publishing
The publisher providing information on the novel's publication, editions, and introduction.
한국문학번역원 디지털도서관
Public materials for checking the work's themes, key characters, and bibliographic information.
봉래시장 (부산 영도구)
A real local market used by Yeongdo residents — a good place to feel the atmosphere of the boarding-house-era alleys.
흰여울 해안 산책로
The coastal walking path in front of Huinnyeoul Culture Village — a photogenic spot where the sea and village rooftops meet.
봉래동 배수지 전망대
An observation point on the Bongnae-dong hillside of Yeongdo, offering a wide view over Yeongdo and the port together.
절영해안산책로 (부산 영도구)
A walking path along Yeongdo's cliff coastline — pleasant for walking with the sound of the waves.
국립해양박물관 (부산 영도구)
A national museum covering maritime labor, migration, and seafaring history — helps place Sunja's diving scenes in historical context.
중리산책로 (부산 영도구)
A modest coastal walking path in Yeongdo's Jungni area — quiet and few tourists, good for enjoying the sea peacefully.
남포동 거리 (부산 중구)
A downtown Busan street connecting to Jagalchi and Gukje Market — the historic center of modern commercial Busan.
동광동 인쇄골목 (부산 중구)
An alley where modern Busan's printing and publishing trade clustered — symbolic of colonial-era information circulation.
중앙동 옛 부산 근대건축거리
A street where colonial-era bank and company buildings survive — modern economic history visible in the architecture.
초량 일본식 가옥 거리
An alley preserving traces of a former Japanese residential quarter — something like a Busan counterpart to Ikaino.
부산세관 박물관
A place showing Busan's customs and trade history since the port's opening.
대평동 조선업 골목 (부산 영도구)
A living alley for Yeongdo's shipbuilding workers — small repair shipyards still cluster here today.
영화의전당 (부산 해운대구)
The home of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) — a symbol of the connection between Korea's film industry and global streaming productions like Pachinko.
송도구름산책로·송도해상케이블카 (부산 서구)
A scenic spot for viewing the Busan coastline — the view of Yeongdo from across the water is striking.
다대포해수욕장 (부산 사하구)
A beach where the Nakdong River estuary meets the sea — a fitting stop alongside the show's themes of migration and waterways.
이쿠노 코리아타운 미유키도리 상점가
The central shopping street of the Koreatown, lined with shops selling Korean groceries, clothing, and music.
오사카 코리아타운 재일대한기독교회
A real church of the Zainichi Korean Christian community — helpful for understanding the historical background of the church Isak leads in the story.
우메다 스카이빌딩 (오사카)
An observation deck for Osaka's modern cityscape — an iconic piece of architecture from Japan's post-1989 bubble economy.
도톤보리 (오사카)
Osaka's iconic entertainment district, symbolizing the postwar vitality of Osaka commerce.
오사카 니시나리구
A working-class district of Osaka whose history overlaps with that of Zainichi Korean and migrant workers.
오사카 텐마 시장
A market for everyday Osaka life — gives a sense of the atmosphere behind the show's Osaka market scenes.
오사카인권박물관(리버티오사카)
A museum broadly covering discrimination and human rights issues, including the history of discrimination against Zainichi Koreans.
난바 (오사카)
A major entertainment district in southern Osaka, useful for imagining the cityscape of the 1980s bubble-economy era.
마루노우치 금융가 (도쿄)
Japan's largest financial and business district — the real-world backdrop for the Tokyo finance company where Solomon works.
긴자 (도쿄)
Tokyo's premier upscale commercial district — showing the glamour at the peak of the 1989 bubble economy.
롯폰기 (도쿄)
A Tokyo district where international finance and business professionals gather.
우에노공원 (도쿄)
One of Tokyo's premier modern-era parks — a good place to explore Japan's modern urban history alongside the show.
오쿠보도리 코리아타운 상점가
The central shopping street of Shin-Okubo — the street with the densest concentration of Hallyu culture in Tokyo today.
고베 기타노이진칸 (효고)
An area preserving traces of the foreign settlement from the port-opening era — showing the modern history of the port city of Kobe.
밴쿠버 개스타운 (캐나다)
Vancouver's historic old town — introduced alongside the cityscape where the Pachinko production crew worked.
뉴욕 코리아타운 (32번가)
A leading Korean commercial district in the US — showing the present day of second- and third-generation diaspora.
성산일출봉 (제주)
One of Jeju's iconic scenic spots — a place to imagine Hansu's novel background.
광안리해수욕장 (부산)
A leading Busan beach famous for the night view of Gwangan Bridge — a nice addition to a modern Busan travel itinerary.
해운대해수욕장 (부산)
Busan's signature beach, easy to combine with a Taejongdae/Yeongdo itinerary.
피란수도부산유산기념관 (부산 동구)
A memorial hall introducing the heritage of Busan as the wartime provisional capital during the Korean War.
동성로 (대구)
A modern commercial street worth exploring alongside the Daegu filming region.
오사카 코리아타운 역사자료관(민단 오사카)
An archive introducing the formation history of the Osaka Koreatown.
초량교회 (부산)
A historic church dating to the era of Busan's port opening — introduced as a real-world reference point for the church storyline.
쓰루하시 야키니쿠 골목
A yakiniku (Korean-style BBQ) street that symbolizes the Zainichi Korean commercial district.
영도대교 아래 공원
A small park where you can watch the Yeongdo Bridge lift up close.
송도해수욕장 (부산 서구)
Korea's first public beach — the starting point of modern Busan's seaside leisure culture.
암남공원 (부산 서구)
A coastal nature park near Songdo, offering views of the western Busan coastline across from Yeongdo.
증산공원 (부산 영도구)
A hillside park behind Yeongdo's Bongnae-dong — a hidden viewpoint overlooking all of Yeongdo.
보수동 도선장 터
Traces of an old ferry landing that once connected Yeongdo to downtown Busan, used before the Yeongdo Bridge was built.
용호만유람선터미널 (부산)
A hub for touring the Busan coastline by cruise boat.
아베노하루카스 (오사카)
One of Japan's tallest observation towers, offering views over Osaka including the direction of Ikuno-ku.
시텐노지 (오사카)
One of Japan's oldest Buddhist temples — worth exploring alongside Osaka's long religious and migration history.
오사카 코리아YMCA
One of the hubs of Zainichi Korean community activity.
오사카 다이쇼구 오키나와타운
Along with Ikuno, another migrant-community district often cited in Osaka.
아사쿠사 (도쿄)
A leading traditional commercial district of Tokyo — showing one of the contrasting faces of the modern city.
신주쿠 (도쿄)
Tokyo's largest sub-center, adjacent to the Shin-Okubo Koreatown — easy to visit together.
도쿄만 임해부도심 (오다이바)
A reclaimed-land new town developed during Japan's 1980s-90s bubble economy — gives a sense of the 1989 development boom.
요코하마 차이나타운
Yokohama's leading immigrant quarter — showing a different form of migrant settlement history than the Zainichi Korean community.
고베 코리아타운 (효고)
Another Zainichi Korean living community in the Kansai region.
우도 (제주)
An islet off Jeju — introduced alongside Hansu's novel background and Jeju island culture.
태종대 자살바위 전망 (안전 관람지)
Another viewpoint at Taejongdae — must be viewed from within the safety fencing.
오륙도 (부산 남구)
An iconic island off Busan Port — a landmark that visually captures the imagery of migration and return.
조도 (부산 영도구)
A small island off the southern tip of Yeongdo, visible from Taejongdae.
오사카 코리아국제학교 인근
An area related to the history of Zainichi Korean education — lets you compare Noa and Mozasu's school storyline with the present day.
초량 168계단 (부산)
A stairway showing the housing history of hillside-road migrants, now with a monorail alongside it.
감만부두 전망 (부산 남구)
A viewpoint over Busan Port's container terminal — showing the transition from a modern-era harbor to a contemporary logistics port.
동삼동 패총전시관 (부산 영도구)
An exhibition hall introducing Yeongdo's prehistoric shell-mound site — showing the island's very long history of habitation.
오사카 코리아타운 전통시장
A traditional market section within the Ikuno Koreatown — the real, everyday workplace of local merchants.
재일대한기독교회 도쿄교회
A Zainichi Korean Christian church in Tokyo — a way to connect Isak's faith storyline to the present day.
태종사 (부산 영도구)
A temple near Taejongdae — a quiet place of worship overlooking the sea.
복천박물관 (부산 동래구)
A museum introducing the ancient-to-modern history of the Dongnae area — pairs well with a visit to Dongnae Villa.