Japan countryside from Tokyo

I am heading out to Tokyo on a business trip at the end of February in to March for a week. I have been to Tokyo before and loved it but I really want to see the Japan countryside. I will have a whole weekend free while there, any suggestions on where I should go and what I should see? Nikko? Osaka?

If you take a suburban train from Tokyo for about 2 hours into any direction, you will basically end up in the countryside. Where to go depends on what you wish to see and do in the countryside? See cultural sights? Hiking? Hot springs? See just a common countryside town?

Not sure what I want to see, I just picked up a frommers guide book and it says if your going to go anywhere outside of Tokyo, Kyoto is the place to go. I also read that it would cost a little over $200 to get there and back. The wild monkeys in Nikko sound really cool and it seems like a shorter cheaper trip?

I guess if you had to choose between Kyoto and Nikko, which is the better choice?

Kyoto! But Kyoto is not countryside!

Sunrise tours offers a two day trip to Kyoto with shinkansen and accommodation included: http://www.jtbgmt.com/sunrisetour/07shinkansen.aspx#tokyo

Preferably choose the early rise option, otherwise you arrive Kyoto on the first day in the afternoon and you leave second day midday already.