User inputting Strings

I'm not an advanced Java programmer  yet. So I'm sure this is just code I simply havn't ever come across before. What I'm trying to do is get input from a user, and make the input a string, instead of a char, or int or anything else. Here's some sample code I've been trying to get work.

String userUser is the users's input for a username, and string userPass is the user's input for the password. And I'm trying to compare them with two predefined strings (user, and pass).

//Password program

public class Password
{
     public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
     {
          System.out.println("Welcome to SomeCoolPlace.");
          System.out.println("Please enter your username and password.");
          System.out.println("-- type 'newuser' as your username for help with setting");
          System.out.println("  up a new user account.");
          String nu = "newuser";
          String user = "okay";
          String pass = "go";
          String userUser = (String)System.in.read(); System.in.read();
          if(userInput.equalsIgnoreCase(nu))
               newUser();
          while(userInput.equals(user)) {
               System.out.println("Password: ");
               String userPass = (String)System.in.read(); System.in.read();
               if(userPass.equals(pass)){
                    System.out.println("Hello " + user);
                    System.out.println("Please select an navigational option below.");
               }
          }
     }
}