Ochaya

06/29/2023

We are all inventoried up! (Late this year, I know.)
Looking for Wednesday load-in assistance.
2:30ish-4:30ish at the Hyatt.
Most things have wheels or can be put on wheels.

See you next week!

06/25/2023

Hello folks!
We are in the final countdown for CONvergence 2023 and there is some information below, but the actual announcement is that this is the last year for Ochaya.

We started back in 2009 and have had an amazing set of years to look back on. It was our intention to finish off our decade of slinging tea for the CVG party block in 2020, but obviously that wasn't possible, so this is our last hurrah!

We'll be doing a wrap here after CVG, but for now -
Thank you so very, very much to our 10 years of volunteers, crowdfunding backers, friends, and family who have helped and supported us. An extra special thank you to CONvergence for letting us throw our little party for so many years. We appreciate the heck out of all of you, we hope that you've had some nice mellow, tea-filled times with us.

We hope to see folks one last time-

-----

The other junk:

As always, we are looking for help during load in/out.
Load-in: 3pm Wednesday
Load-out: 10am Sunday
Or if you wish to volunteer standard times, our hours are 5pm-11pm on Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Please email us OR hit me (Addison(Amaya)) up directly.

Updated (and continued) health, safety, and wellness notes:
-We are not doing a sit-down. We will have some milling space and some tables, but we wish to continue to keep folks as safe as we can during CONvergence.
-We have switched completely to disposables, all are recyclable and compostable.
-Ochaya volunteers and heads will do all service with gloves/masks.
-Complete ingredients listings are available for allergen and food sensitivity needs and concerns.
-We are ALWAYS a designated safe space.
-We do not have any type of strobing or intermittent light sources or loud music.
-We always a dry room.
-We are always kid friendly.

See you soon!

04/18/2023

Hello folks! It is now well into 2023, and we have been accepted into the CONvergence party room block (and just did all our paperwork omg).

Hopefully we will have some fun surprises to talk about soon.

We are excited about our 10th year!

11/08/2022

Hello everyone!
It has been a long time since I last posted anything. The Ochaya crew hopes you have all been staying healthy since we posted back before CONvergence 2021.

I have submitted our party room application for the upcoming 2023. I am determined to run the room in some fashion, it just may end up being a little different from usual.

New health & safety notes:
-Switching completely to disposables - I am disappointed about this, but it needs to be done for health concerns.
-Ochaya folks will be doing all service with gloves/masks.
-Assuming that the CONvergence policy stays the same, we ask that you do your ordering with your mask on and only remove it when you are drinking/eating. Please wear it if you plan on staying to play a game.

Old, but continued health & safety, etc.:
-Complete ingredients listings are available for allergen and food sensitivity needs and concerns.
-We are ALWAYS a designated safe space.
-We do not have any type of strobing or intermittent light sources or loud music.
-We always a dry room.
-We are kid friendly.

If you are potentially interested in volunteering in 2023, please email us at ochaya.partyroom[at]gmail, I will put you on the short list to contact when we get more information.

I really hope to be able to celebrate our 10th Ochaya and my personal 20th CONvergence with all of you in 2023.

Best,
Amaya

04/26/2021

Good morning folks,

It is with some amount of disappointment that we are bowing out from the party block this year for CONvergence, though the convention is probably going to proceed.
This would have been our 10th year running Ochaya and we wanted to try and make it special, but the potential for CVG to not occur and for the continued social distancing, we have elected to not host this year.
Our party room was built on being a quiet and intimate space, and with where we are at right now, public health speaking, we would have to drastically alter how we manage the room- and it just wouldn't be the same.
We hope that everyone is safe and healthy and that we can see you in 2022.

Best,
The Ochaya Crew

05/30/2020

Hey everyone,
At this time CONvergence is being moved to 2021 after coming to agreements with the Hyatt. This is in the best interest for our community safety. We hope to see you next year for our 10th Ochaya.

Hope everyone is staying as safe and healthy as they are able to.

05/04/2020

Hey everyone, this is your notification that we have been approved for CONvergence 2020.

Obviously a lot has been happening since we entered into the new year. In the event that we are in a situation that would have the con go forward, but we feel that it would not be in the best interest to host, we will be dropping out of party block. There isn't a huge point in hustling you all out the door in the name of safety.

We will continue to keep in contact with the Parties Department and CONvergence staff to see what the best course of action is, and we hope to see you at the end of the summer.

Hope you all are safe, healthy, and relatively unscathed.

07/14/2019

2020 is going to be our 10th year doing Ochaya-
what would make it extra special for you?

07/07/2019

Thank you all so very much for an amazing first year at the Hyatt, and ninth year of Ochaya.

We are humbled and grateful to all of you who stopped by to thank us for returning after our year away. We are excited by the many new faces who might also become people we see every year.

A very special thank you to Parties, we understand that this was a very tough year, and we appreciate your continued patience, hard work, and dedication to helping us navigate our way through a new space.

Thank you to our amazing volunteers who helped serve, clean, and generally be awesome to everyone who came into the room. Thank you to those of you who helped with our load in (and soon to be load out), that took too long- but you stuck it out with us. We appreciate you all so very much.

We are all packed up and ready for a very early morning departure, and we hope to see you in 2020 for our tenth year.

Thank you again,

-Ochaya
Amaya, Ian, and Cameron

07/04/2019

Come join us for our first year at the Hyatt!

07/03/2019

07/02/2019

Reminder: We have an allergen sheet behind the counter if you have dietary restrictions. Please just let us know and we can check!

07/02/2019

We did our last inventory sweep last night, and are basically all ready to go!

We are arriving Wednesday at 3pm, if you’re looking for early convention volunteer hours, come help us unload! This year because of the new hotel, we only have one hour to get our stuff off the truck- and then back on Sunday at 10am. If you can help even move a box, it’s extremely helpful.

Email us at Ochaya.partyroom[at]gmail for details.

We are excited to see you all for our 9th year, and our 1st year at the Hyatt!

06/27/2019

Before (not including food/bev and first aid) and after.
A few last minute items to buy, and a couple things to grab, but everything else is listed, boxed, and labeled.
We’re getting there, one day at a time.

06/25/2019

Some more information from JET: Ever wanted to travel to Japan? Wonder what it's like to live in a country with a different language and culture? Alumni of the Japan Exchange Teaching (JET) Programme will talk about their experiences living and working in Japan, as well as what you can do to get a job teaching in Japan.

We are also going to have some informational packets available if you are interested an cannot make it to the panel.

06/24/2019

The mochi has arrived!!!

06/23/2019

Thanks to those of you who have responded for volunteering so far, we are still looking for a couple more with availability! Email ochaya.partyroom @ gmail.com and we can hook you up. Please take a look at the schedule before hand so we can better accommodate your panels/events/etc.

We took a bunch of time today to work out room layout planning, it's going to be a bit of an awkward transition year, but we hope to make it a good one!

A week of inventory and some last minute purchasing and we will be all ready to see you.

As always the Ochaya is a listed Safe Space for CVG, we also will have all of our allergens, etc. listed separately if you need them.

CONvergence is imminent!

06/18/2019

We are excited to announce that we are going to be having a special guest at Ochaya this year, Thursday 5-6pm.

A representative from JET will be coming in to talk about their Japanese Exchange program, and answer any questions you may have about living in Japan and teaching on the JET program.

Please stop in to ask questions, learn about the program, etc.!

https://jetprogramusa.org/

Welcome to the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program. Founded in 1987, JET has sent more than 66,000 participants from around the globe (including nearly 34,000 Americans) to work in schools, boards of education, and government offices throughout Japan. What makes JET unique is that it is the on...