[godwine]

There are plenty of things to do around kyoto. Try to stay around Osaka, which is not far from Kyoto anyways. Kyoto itself has plenty of stuff to see, you can also take a train to Sakai city to look at tombs from the Kofun period.

Things to see: Osaka, Himeji, Nara

Do take a trip over to Miyajima if you have the chance. If you are not going to be mobile (meaning if you are only staying at one place and travel out), then you really don't have much to do to last you a few months, but with a few months, you can cover a lot of grounds... go to fukuoka if you have time, Tokyo is a must....

Man, just too many places and possiblities

Cost:
Transportation - Expect to pay an arm and a leg for transportation unless you can get a monthly pass.

Accommodation - If you are not looking for fancy hotels, you can find cheap business hotels starting from around US$50 a night

Food - Stick with street food and ramen, it will cost you somewhere around $6.00 -$12.00 a meal for street food and ramen.

What do you want to do? And exactly how much time do you have?