"This stuff saved my life," says Amelia Toledo, one of Brazil's best-known artists. She pulls out of her handbag a tiny bottle of flower essence. "You just drop it on your tongue and it makes you feel better."
Not quite what you would expect in the middle of an interview at the Brazilian Embassy in Tokyo's Harajuku district -- but then neither is the distinctive, bright blue and yellow building quite what you would expect of an embassy.
On this occasion, adding to the already entertaining mix of people inside, Toledo greets fellow artist Susi Sielski Cantarino with a kiss. Though both women are on their first visits to Japan, and met here for the first time, they already have the easy, open air of best friends together -- much like the unpretentious, easygoing warmth expressed in their art.