I was talking to Kazuya (Japanese martialgym coach/friend) on his favorite season of the year. He said summer and of course I wondered why.

In Japan, the biggest competition All Japan, inter-college and the qualifiers all happen around the fall. So during summer, without school, these kids were almost living inside the gym - hot, sweaty and of course sometimes in pain but hanging out with friends and doing what they like most.

I have never thought about the 'advantage' of having qualifiers out in the fall - like by then, all code changes would have settle down, no school just practices, etc. One big difference in Japan versus US and Canada is that in Japan, RG and MRG are all part of college sponsored programs, so there are no extra costs associated with hanging around the gym.