[ghoshida]

Just got back from Japan. My wife and I stayed at the Sunshine City Prince in Ikebukuro. While the hotel was very average, the location cannot be beat for those with infants. There is a Toys R Us in the mall attached to the hotel and they have an extensive line of baby food for newborns to 12 month olds. While the food is primarily made in Japan with not a Gerber in sight some of the foods were very much an improvement compared to the standard US foods.

Of note, there are biting biscuits for the teething infants. The noticeable difference were that while the Gerbers version melts very quickly and leaves a huge mess on my boy's face, the Japanese version is a little more dense and melts a lot slower under saliva. My child had no issues with the increased density and are offered in various flavors (vegetable, sweet potato, etc...)

The downside were that some of the meals were a little too chunky for my boy. While the Gerbers foods are pureed until the graduate level, the 7 month Japanese offering had a bit of Campbells vegetable soup quality and did prove to be a bit of a struggle to eat for my child. At 9 months old I felt that this was a bit of a setback and had to settle for the 5 month old food.