Well before you answer those questions...
How are you gonna draw it?
If you use System.out.println(..) to print to screen, it just prints what you said, you can't update it.
You could keep redrawing the snake, but in your command prompt you wil just see a huge list of snakes as you scroll, and it would be very flashy when viewing it.
I would have a crack at GUI's.
It is difficult when you start, but its probably best to start with a JFrame and a JPanel, and try some graphics.
Try out my chess, might give some inspiration (or it might not).
http://www.colin-java.co.uk/JChess/index.htm