It makes me cringe to hear you say Java to mean JavaScript :D

Python is great but even Hive uses CUSTOM JSON which is native javascript.
Wanna do anything on a website? Need Javascript.

I agree that Python is a better place to start but Javascript is also much more basic and easy to deal with compared to C++ or other similar languages. All scripting languages have increased simplicity. Javascript has a crazy amount of power behind it. At the same time if you learn Python a lot of that knowledge is going to translate to Javascript.