This may become a culture shock for you who arrives in Japan for the first time. Say, you are at your friend's home, being invited to a homely prepared meal and you notice that there are rice bowls and cups of various sizes .... can you guess what that means?
In a traditional Japanese family, the size of rice bowl implies status or level of respect in the family, therefore a husband usually has the biggest size of rice bowl while the children have the smallest, and usually the elder gets a bigger one than the younger... and so on.
I bet this sort of culture can last only in a country like Japan... where people preserve culture and one of its culture is that "status or level of respect is considered important" even in a family and that one way to portray such a respect is through delicate items such as "rice bowl"... also "sake cup" and "tea cup" too!
(oops.... i better get a new set of bowls and cups ... to blend in more with the culture i live with :)
