The first place to pause on your bike tour from the station is the modern St Francis Xavier Memorial Church , whose twin towers are easily spotted atop Kame-yama-koen on the northwest side of the city. It was named after the pioneering Spanish missionary Xavier, who, having already had success in Goa and Malacca, landed in Japan on August 15, 1549, and in the following year was granted leave to preach in Yamaguchi. When he left, the city had a community of more than five hundred Christians, many of whom later died for their beliefs under the less tolerant Tokugawa government.

In 1991, the original church, built in 1951 to commemorate the four-hundredth anniversary of Xavier's visit, burnt down. It has recently been completely replaced by a striking contemporary structure incorporating a pyramid-like main building, and twin square towers topped by metallic sculptures, one hung with nine bells.

A more traditionally Japanese place of worship is the charming temple and park of Ruriko-ji and Kozan-koen , in the foothills around 1km north of Kame-yama-koen. The temple dates from the high point of the Ouchi clan's reign and epitomizes the Kyoto style of the Muromachi era (1333-1573). Its highlight is a beautifully preserved five-storey pagoda made from Japanese cypress and picturesquely sited beside an ornamental pond. Beside the temple is a small exhibition hall (daily 8.30am-5pm; ¥300), containing a diverting collection of model pagodas, photographs of the other 53 pagodas scattered around Japan, and strange masks.

Next to Ruriko-ji, the park Kozan-koen , with its peaceful and atmospheric graveyard, is the last resting place of the daimyo Mori Takachika and his offspring. Takachika was one of the prime movers in planning the overthrow of the Tokugawa government at the end of the Edo era, and there are a couple of old wooden houses preserved in the park where he secretly met with fellow plotters. The closest bus stop to Ruriko-ji is Kimachi.

Some 2km east of the park, along the major road Route 9, is the enchanting Sesshu-tei garden at the temple Joei-ji (daily 8am-5pm; ¥300). The priest and master-painter Sesshu, born in Okayama-ken in 1420, settled in Yamaguchi at the end of the fifteenth century. After travelling to China to study the arts, he was asked by the daimyo Ouchi Masahiro to create a traditional garden for the grounds of his mother's summer house. Sesshu's Zen-inspired rock and moss design remains intact behind the temple and, if you're fortunate enough to avoid the arrival of a tour group, you'll be able to sit in quiet contemplation of the garden's simple beauty, looking for the volcano-shaped rock that symbolizes Mount Fuji. The surrounding forest, and the lily-pad pond, add brilliant splashes of colour, particularly in autumn, when the maple trees flame red and gold. Orimoto, the closest bus stop to Joei-ji, is around ten minutes' walk south of the temple.

On the way back to the city centre, follow the meandering path of the Ichinosaka-gawa , a pretty stream crossed by pedestrian bridges. The cherry trees along the riverbanks turn candy-floss pink each spring, while in early summer fireflies ( genji botaru ) buzz around the azaleas and reeds.

One train station before Yamaguchi or a short bus ride south of the city centre is Yuda Onsen , easily spotted by the cluster of large (and not particularly attractive) hotels. A cute legend about a white fox curing an injured leg in the natural springwater explains both how the onsen and the town's mascot, immortalized by an eight-metre-high cartoon-like fox statue beside the station, developed. Onsen no Mori (daily 10am-midnight; ¥1000), a modern spa complex about ten minutes' walk north from Yuda Onsen Station, has several different Jacuzzi baths, a sauna and a rotemburo (an outdoor pool) and you're given towels to use when you enter.