The thing about Korea is that women here just try harder to look good. For better or for worse, they are under more pressure to look as fly as possible all the time, so they are generally more formal, wear high heels as a rule, apply makeup to go to the corner store, covet designer labels, and spend an inordinate amount of their income trying to keep up with the new fashion trends every season. This means, that unlike men, they don’t get to wear certain shoes for 5+ years straight.

Note to the women still wearing the overlong, pointy pumps from the late 1990’s – your ajummaness is showing, in that the ajumma is defined not just by being old, but more exactly, by my “ajumma rule.” My rule postulates that the real ajumma is defined by someone who still wears the shoes that were attractive when she was still an agassi, and but she is now too practical/stubborn/cheap to want to continue keeping up with the fashion trends. So she will say – and she’d be right – “Why waste money buying all these new shoes every season? The ones I have are pretty enough!” Yes, you’re right. But you’re also officially an ajumma now.

Anyway, I was walking down the street when I spied the loveliest leggy sight walk past me at the crosswalk. I was also suddenly reminded how much there is to look at for a man on the average Korean street. Foreign male friends visiting me always remark at how good the women look here. And no, it’s not the standard “Asian fetish” thing, but more of “Did you see what she’s wearing?” or “Do girls always dress like this?”

Fortunately for me, the answer is, “yes.” And the girl who passed me was definitely just a “average” on the Korean appearance scale. But on my getting-dressed-up-means-putting-on-a-suit-once-a-year scale, Korean everyday fashion – especially for women – is pretty impressive.

Let’s be real – most Korean women (as with men) didn’t grow up playing team sports and exercise for women has only recently become an acceptable idea. So most adult women spent their childhoods thinking that jogging was going to make their calves huge, or lifting weights would make them look like Little Miss Arnold S. So you get girls who are skinny but don’t look healthy, and who have even less shape than genes would allow. Although Korean men like it, I don’t like my women looking pigeon-toed and weak, with flabby arms and legs that are still inexplicably thin. “Skinny fat” is not my thing.

But time here has changed some things, so my standards are…umm…different now, yet still pretty varied. And, as fate seems to dictate, I tend to find girls in their mid-to-late 20’s the most desirable, although girls in their early 20’s tend to show more of it off. Here’s an average late-20’s girl, just walking down the street. Would you ever get to see a single person look like this at a Walmart back home?

I’m not saying that there aren’t shapely girls back home. I’m just saying that they’re not making much of an effort to look their very best, all the time, which I don’t think is a bad thing to not be doing. But you gotta admit, Korean girls do know how to work it. Here’s a lovely “sideswipe” shot that I’m getting better much better at taking.

And here’s the standard “shoeflip” shot to round things out.

Korean summers are truly hot!