Tea!
I can only answer your questions once you have decided on what kind of tea you want. I'm the semi-expert on green and herbal teas (hopefully on white soon too), the mild teas, and don't fancy black except for a cup of Earl Grey very rarely. I always recommend loose tea instead of teabags unless you need to make a thermos for work or the like. Or you are just too lazy to do it any other way sometimes.
... That being said, I am guilty of this myself right now.
*fishes teabag out of cup before anyone sees*
The advantage of drinking the milder teas is that you don't have to sweeten it and it doesn't keep you awake if you aren't used to caffeine. Of course you can leave sugar/honey out of your black tea as well, but I can't - which may be the reason I don't have it. With green teas you have to make sure not to use too hot water (leave to cool for 3-5 minutes) or it will become bitter because of the leaves release the bitterness when coming in contact with too hot water or being left in it too long (remove tea after 1.5 minutes or so).
I find it quite fascinating that all teas are made from similar leaves that were only processed differently.
I'll try to answer your Qs:
What would be a good tea for a beginner to try? If you like strong drinks, black is fine. I can't help you there. Otherwise mild teas might be a good choice: good quality green, white and herbal teas. If you like the taste of bark, try roibos.
What is the best method of preparation? Depends on the tea. Follow the instructions from the teashop (buying from a specialised teashop would be best).
Is there anything else that should go in it? (Milk, Sugar, Cream, Toe Nails?) To taste, whatever you think your body can cope with.
Does temperature make that big a difference, or is room temperature OK? The temperature of the water when you our it on the leaves makes a difference depending on the type of tea you have and can improve or worsen the quality. Whether you drink it hot, luke warm or cold is a matter of taste. Personally, I like to wait till I can't possibly burn myself... and then I forget about the pot I made and have to have the next few cups cold.
Are there any enhancers or is the pure tea method the greatest? (I love making tea sandwiches but oddly enough I've never had them with tea.) I am not sure what you mean by enhancers. I am in favour of pure tea, i.e. without sugar or milk (unless black). Oh, I just saw that enhancers might refer to flavouring: in that case, I like both and if you buy from a proper teashop you won't have to worry about getting bad tea, usually. Cheap supermarket teas in teabags are usually perfumed though.
I don't normally have anything to eat with a cup of tea either because all this distracts from the real taste, but I have seen that lots of teashops in my area sell shortbread too.
Any requisite hardware? Are tea kettles that important? It always seemed silly that all they did was boil water unless I'm missing something. I use an electric kettle and don't think it matters how you boil the water as long as you boil it and not microwave it as was mentioned by another poster.
Does the tea come in varying degrees of strength like coffee does? Not in that way, but generally yes - hence the different types (black, green, yellow, white...)
And last but not least, why do you enjoy tea? The colour, the taste, the scent, the warmth especially on colder days, watching the vapour swirl, and knowing that you are partaking in an age-old tradition.
Apart from that it is healthy and if you make two pots every day you won't have to worry about your daily amount of liquid (I, for instance, find it easy to drink 2L of tea rather than 2L of water everyday). And there are so many nice things to make the experience more pleasurable: all kinds of sweeteners: honey, candy, sugar in various forms and of many kinds, with or without alcohol etc. Then there are tea eggs, nice tea tins for storage, special measuring spoons and so on.
Because of tea I now have too many lovely teacups.
*hoists 0.5 L mug* Cheers!