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| Where Was Merry Berry Love Filmed? All Japan and South Korea Locations Revealed. |
Merry Berry Love was filmed across Japan and South Korea, with the production moving between the peaceful landscapes of Fukuoka and the energetic streets of Seoul. Most of the 10-episode series was shot around Nokonoshima Island, where the Japanese setting of fictional Charo Island comes to life through strawberry fields, rural homes, coastal roads and island scenery. The production began in September 2025 and continued into early 2026 before moving to Seoul in March.
While some precise shooting spots were not publicly identified during production, partly to keep filming free from unwanted interruptions, the locations that have been associated with the series offer enough clues for viewers planning their own Merry Berry Love-inspired trip.
Nokonoshima Island, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, is the central filming location and arguably the place most closely connected with the identity of Merry Berry Love. Sitting in Hakata Bay, the island provided the countryside atmosphere required for fictional Charo Island, replacing the need to construct an entirely artificial rural world.
Its greenery, flower-filled landscapes, coastal roads and traditional-looking houses helped establish the slower pace of life experienced by Yu-bin after leaving South Korea. For viewers, it is easy to see why the production chose somewhere like this: the scenery already looks suspiciously ready for a romantic drama, so the cameras mostly had to turn up and behave themselves.
Nokonoshima Island’s flower parks also formed part of the visual landscape used by the production. The island is known for its expansive natural surroundings, giving Merry Berry Love plenty of room to contrast Yu-bin’s former professional life with Karin’s quieter existence.
The open landscapes work particularly well for a story centred on healing and starting again, while also giving the series a visual break from Seoul’s dense urban environment. For anyone interested in visiting locations associated with the drama, this is one of the strongest places to put on the itinerary.
The rural houses and countryside areas of Nokonoshima Island were another important part of the Japanese production. Rather than relying entirely on polished studio sets, the series used the island’s existing rural character to create the community surrounding Karin. These locations help sell the idea that Charo Island is a functioning place rather than a convenient television backdrop. The result is a setting where agricultural work, local relationships and everyday routines feel naturally connected.
The strawberry farming areas in Fukuoka Prefecture were used for Karin’s agricultural scenes, including harvesting, plant care and other moments connected with her family’s farm. Actual commercial fruit farms in the Fukuoka agricultural belt provided the environment for these sequences, allowing the production to show practical farming rather than dressing up a generic field and hoping nobody notices. The strawberry-growing setting is particularly important because Karin’s relationship with her farm is central to her character and her connection to her late grandfather.
Fukuoka City’s coastline and harbour areas were used for transportation scenes connecting the island with the mainland. These locations provided the ferry terminals and harbour structures needed to make the journey to and from Charo Island feel like a genuine part of the characters’ lives. They also broaden the visual geography of the series, showing that the story’s remote setting is still connected to a larger Japanese coastal environment.
Seoul’s Hongdae district in South Korea represents almost the complete opposite of the Japanese island setting. Production moved to Seoul in March 2026 to capture Yu-bin’s professional world before his dramatic fall from the top of the design industry.
Hongdae’s busy streets, cafés and design-focused businesses supplied the contemporary urban atmosphere needed for those sequences. The contrast is pretty deliberate: one minute Yu-bin belongs to a polished city environment, and the next he is dealing with strawberry plants. Career planning clearly has its limits.
Hongdae’s modern cafés and design boutiques were particularly suited to the character’s background as an elite spatial and interior designer. The district gave the production an authentic metropolitan texture for scenes showing the lifestyle Yu-bin leaves behind. Its dense streets and contemporary commercial spaces also provide a useful visual counterpoint to the open landscapes of Nokonoshima Island, making his eventual escape from Seoul feel much more substantial.
Seoul studio soundstages were used for the more controlled interior sequences, including high-end apartments and luxury offices appearing early in the series. These constructed interiors allowed the production to create the polished professional world associated with Yu-bin without being restricted by real buildings. They also helped establish the sharp difference between his former life and the simpler surroundings he encounters after travelling to Japan.
The filming schedule itself gives the locations an interesting shape. The main Japanese shoot ran from September 2025 to January 2026, with the production spending roughly three months around Nokonoshima Island and other parts of the Fukuoka area. Seoul then became the focus in March 2026. That production pattern mirrors the story rather neatly, moving from the crowded professional environment of South Korea into the agricultural and coastal setting where Yu-bin’s life begins to change.
The location choices are one of the more appealing parts of Merry Berry Love because the scenery is not simply there to look pretty behind the actors. The Japanese locations reflect Karin’s connection to farming and her grandfather, while Seoul represents the pressure and ambition surrounding Yu-bin before everything falls apart.
Even the ferry and coastal sequences help make the island feel separated from his old world. It is the sort of drama where the locations are doing some of the emotional heavy lifting, which is fortunate because nobody wants a strawberry field to exist purely as expensive wallpaper.
For viewers planning a trip based around Merry Berry Love filming locations, Nokonoshima Island naturally deserves the most attention because it carries the strongest connection to the fictional Charo Island. The Fukuoka coastline adds another side of the Japanese setting, while Hongdae offers the complete urban contrast in South Korea.
Of course, television productions rarely publish every doorway, road junction or temporary setup used during filming, and that is understandable. Exact details can change during production, and keeping some operational information private also allows crews to work without becoming an accidental tourist attraction.
There is also something satisfying about seeing how dramatically the production shifts between its two countries. Seoul gives Yu-bin a world of offices, design studios and polished city life, while Fukuoka gives Karin a landscape of farms, greenery, coastlines and quieter homes.
The locations therefore become part of the story rather than merely scenery. If you are choosing just one place to experience the atmosphere of the series, Nokonoshima Island is the obvious pick, particularly for anyone more interested in Karin’s side of the story than Yu-bin’s former corporate lifestyle.
Ultimately, Merry Berry Love has a filming-location advantage that many romantic dramas would probably like to steal: its two main settings look completely different without feeling disconnected. Japan provides the heart of the story, while Seoul establishes the life Yu-bin needs to leave behind.
For fans planning a holiday, the combination makes an unusually good itinerary because you can move from Seoul’s energetic urban streets to Fukuoka’s quieter island scenery and get two very different sides of the series in one trip. So, would you actually add Nokonoshima Island or Hongdae to your travel bucket list after watching Merry Berry Love? Tell us which location you would visit first, and whether the series has made you curious about seeing its Japanese setting in person.