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I’m going to Miyazaki City in Japan next month. I would like to see around the prefecture but I can’t seem to find enough details about “trains” (assuming there are trains) or busses on google maps as it only shows directions by car. I wonder if any of you could direct me to a preferably English website where I can find more details with a map of famous attractions. For example I would love to go visit Takachiho-cho but not sure if there are trains to there. I’ll be staying at the Grande Sheraton in Miyazaki.

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:

• Actual edited English language content


• Translated through Google Translate from Japanese

For the machine translated ones, you have to be a bit careful about interpreting the exact information you are getting from the site.

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.