Your first trip to Korea after Japan: what's familiar and what to learn
If you have traveled in Japan, prepaid transport cards and meals with rice and soup may feel familiar. This guide looks at their Korean equivalents, along with maps and restaurant ordering.
Your first trip to Korea after Japan: what's familiar and what to learn
Exit 9 at Gasan Digital Complex Station in Seoul, December 2025.
The experience of getting around and ordering food in Japan can help on a first trip to Korea. You can still take buses and trains with a transport card, browse shops, and stop at a restaurant for lunch.
Trains and buses: a familiar prepaid transport card
The Japan National Tourism Organization describes IC cards such as Suica and PASMO as prepaid cards for trains, buses, and some shops. If you topped up a card to use public transport in Japan, the purpose of Korea's transport cards will be easy to understand.[1]
The Korea Tourism Organization lists Tmoney and EZL as transport cards that you can buy and top up at convenience stores.[2]
For card types and detailed buying and top-up instructions, see the guide to Seoul transport cards.
A meal: rice, soup, and side dishes
If you've eaten a Japanese teishoku, a meal with rice, soup, a main dish, and accompaniments will be familiar. The Japan National Tourism Organization explains that teishoku includes white rice, miso soup, a main dish, and items such as pickled vegetables.[3] The Korea Tourism Organization describes a typical Korean table setting with rice, soup, banchan, and jjigae.[4]
A baekban meal photographed near Jinju Bus Terminal in May 2012.
What these meals have in common is eating several foods together rather than a single dish on its own. In Korea, knowing that the small dishes served with your main are banchan helps make sense of the table.[4] Exactly what's included depends on the menu item you choose.
In Korean restaurants, distinguish dishes ordered by the bowl from dishes meant to be shared. How much to order depends on whether the listed price is for a bowl, a plate, or one portion. For solo ordering and help with ordering and paying, see the guide to eating at Korean restaurants.
The Korea Tourism Organization also describes restaurants with self-service water and side dishes or ordering kiosks.[4] Follow the restaurant's instructions to see whether you order at a machine by the entrance or at your table, and whether you fetch your own water.
Finding places: save the Korean name and address too
Keep the habit of preparing directions that served you in Japan, but save the Korean names and addresses of your accommodation and the shops you plan to visit as well. An address helps distinguish branches with the same name.
NAVER Map's official listing describes maps in Korean, English, Japanese, and Chinese, along with public transport directions and alerts for getting on and off public transport.[5] Search for your accommodation and other destinations in the language you'll use, and check that you've found the right branch. The guide to Seoul map apps covers maps to use in Korea and finding station exits.
Sources
[1] Japan National Tourism Organization: IC travel cards
[2] Korea Tourism Organization: transport cards
[3] Japan National Tourism Organization: dining out in Japan — teishoku
[5] NAVER Map official application listing
Photo credits
• Cover: Narubaru7 · 가산디지털단지역 9번 출구, 2025년 12월 겨울 풍경.jpg · CC BY 4.0 · Orientation corrected, resized and JPEG re-encoded.
• Photo 1: hyolee2 · Baekban.JPG · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Orientation corrected, resized and JPEG re-encoded.