score:5
There is some information that looks useful on Wikivoyage: https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Miyazaki
The Miyazaki train station is served by JR Kyushu: http://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/english/
The Miyazaki City Tourism Association has links to information about transportation including bus companies: http://www.miyazaki-city.tourism.or.jp/en/access/index.html
Japanese sites that offer an English language selection usually do it one of two ways:
For the machine translated ones, you have to be a bit careful about interpreting the exact information you are getting from the site.
Upvote:3
I’ve used the HyperDia app as an essential part of my kit for travel planning in Japan.
*Pro: It is up to date, and provides exquisitely detailed train routing and fare results. In my experience, it provides more options than google maps. If you are using JR Pass, which is often economical, it has a switch to avoid trains & routes not covered by the pass.
*Con: Phone app is a paid service. Not map-based, so you need to know the station names, which may differ from place names. In practice I’ll use it alongside google maps to get correct station names.
In your specific case, it will be limited as there is no train station in Takachiho (Nearest one is Nobeoka), so bus or train+bus may be your only public transport options.
Specifically, the best bet might be the Miyazaki - Takachiho bus line, for 2500 Yen. You can have fun with google translate trying to puzzle it out, but hotels and excellent tourist information offices located in train stations will be able to help if you do not speak/read Japanese.