I wouldnt recommend using notepad as a beginner. Use JCreator (http://jcreator.com/) it offers syntax highlighting, auto indentation and it makes compiling and running applications/applets a lot easier.

It is, in my opinion, ONE of the easiest languages to learn. It is a cleaned up version of c++ (sort of). It leaves out some of the harder concepts that are in c++. Plus it's an OOP (Object Oriented Programming) language which is one of its main features.

Here is an application version of the Hello World program.
Code:
//HelloWorld.java      <-comment

public class HelloWorld 
{
     public static void main(String args[])
     {
          System.out.println("Hello World!");        //Prints Hello World to the output device
     }
}
oooo Boy It's always been exciting when it Runs the very First
Like gettin high, getting drunk or doin it theres nothin like your first time.