How to store Hindi characters in MYSQL database

[Sanjay Subramanyam]

Hi All,
We are building a application which requires us to store Hindi content in the database. We are using Java as our front end tool to display/ capture etc. I would like to know the following
1. What should be the table defination to allow us to store hindi fonts
2. Do we need to make any changes to the MYSL instance so that when we query it using MYSQL query browser it shows us the data in hindi.
3. How do we handle the fetching and display of this font in Java.

Another point: our customer has entered huge amounts of data in XL and the font are Hindi. I need to convert this to MYSQL is there any free tool which can convert them directly or do i need to make it a CSV and import it to the DB.
Hope some one will have an quick answer..

Regards
Sanjay Subramanyam
email: [e-mail]