Funny I had the exact opposite impression after using Java years ago. I felt like Android's API redeemed Java in my eyes a bit. I never liked Java much but the emulator, the debugger, a documented API, lots of example, developer blogs all made it very easy to get started and I create a rather complicated app pretty quickly.
Looking back I wouldn't mind developing on Android again but I wouldn't want to necessarily do anything with Java by itself.
Have to agree, I thoroughly despised Java until I started developing for Android, it suited the Application Framework and made the language fun, developing fully functional apps with ease and speed.
Looking back I wouldn't mind developing on Android again but I wouldn't want to necessarily do anything with Java by itself.