The wipers/ turn signal issue is not universal. Ford uses the same LHD steering wheel/ cluster install on some RHD cars to save money. I rented a Ford in NZ while living in Japan, so was engaging the wipers a lot. When I came back to the US on trips it took me a day or two to not make the mistake.
The thing to think about is that the turn signal is adjacent to the window (unless you are in a RHD Ford!)
Another tip is that the driver should always be adjacent to the center line. If you find yourself next to the curb....... This tip came from an Irish friend who traveled back and forth a lot to the US.
I was contemplating buying a German car model in Japan that only was imported as LHD but I decided that was going to be too tough in the beginning.
It's pretty high status in Japan to buy high end tuner Mercedes, Porsche models and whatnot that is exclusively available in LHD. Even the in-house models like AMG seem to be LHD in Japan. I saw lots of rare tuner cars like Brabus, Lorinser (Mercedes), RUF (Porsche) in Japan, whereas never spotted one anywhere else in the world. Of course, the most notorious Porsche tuner is actually in Chiba: Rauh-Welt Begriff (sic). I took a young visitor from Germany to this bodyshop (what it actually is) in 2013. RWB is hated among Porsche purists for its cartoon-like body kits.
There was a lady in my old neighborhood who tooled around in an older Rolls Royce. I often spotted her car down the road illegally parked outside Tokyu Honten in Shibuya while she did her shopping. Remarkably, it was a LHD model!
Originally Posted by
evergrn
I will tell you my experiences. Two years ago I rented a car from an urban location in Hokkaido. I'm in the car with the rental car lady who's showing me how to use the GPS and tells me which gas station to go to. Then she says "see ya" and suddenly I'm left to my own devices to drive this car out of the parking lot which directly leads out to a busy intersection. It's like being thrown into fire. I'm sitting on the 'wrong' side, everything's backwards, and it took some courage to get going. I needed to think ahead of time how I'm supposed to turn left at this initial traffic light. Once you negotiate that and start driving amongst other cars, you quickly build up confidence. However, the thing that will continue to get you is the wiper blade vs turn signal thing. You will get that mixed up all the time. When you have to turn at an intersection, just follow the car in front of you. When there's no car in front of you and you're the first or the only one turning, you have to think hard and remind yourself in advance how you're going to turn and where you're going. But after a few hours, all of that gets more comfortable. However, just when I thought it was becoming piece of cake, I ended up driving on the wrong side one day and looking really stupid (not to mention dangerous). So you constantly have to keep reminding yourself "left side! left side!"
Last summer I rented from a place that was in more of a quiet location where getting out of the agency parking lot was a lot less intimidating. That certainly helped me ease into things.
I really don't think taking one or two lessons on driving on opposite side is going to help. Driving is driving. The only thing inherently different about the car is that wiper blade and turn signals are flip-flopped. Pedals are the same. The thing that's key is constantly reminding yourself to drive on the left side.