My primary language of employment is Java, but it's been a long time since I was on the steep part of the learning curve. One thing I thought I'd throw out there would be to read the Javadoc both for the core api and any other libraries you might be using. It's the Java counterpart to perldoc. I think that would take you a long way.

For example, string splitting? You might look at the documentation for java.lang.String and see it has a split method! Regexes in general? A search from the overview page would reveal the java.util.regex package.

Yes, you're going to be typing a whole lot more :-( If Perl is like Charles Dickins' prose in its expressiveness, Java is more like a third-grader's paper on what they did last summer.

As a general piece of advice, I would recommend imitating other code you can find in your project, or in reputable open-source libraries (say, part of the Apache Group). I think cargo-culting is your friend here, as long as you make sure you understand the code you're copying. This is just my opinion though, so if others have contrasting viewpoints, they might be more convincing.