Hi, You can get cell comments using such chunk of code:

            HSSFWorkbook wb = new HSSFWorkbook();
            HSSFSheet sheet = wb.createSheet();
            Drawing drawing = sheet.createDrawingPatriarch();

            HSSFClientAnchor clientAnchor = new HSSFClientAnchor(0, 0, 0, 0, (short) 0, 0, (short)3, 3);
            Comment comment = drawing.createCellComment(clientAnchor);
            RichTextString str = new HSSFRichTextString("Hello, World!");
            comment.setString(str);
            comment.setRow(3);
            comment.setColumn(4);

            FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("workbook.xls");
            wb.write(out);
            out.close();

            wb = new HSSFWorkbook(new FileInputStream("workbook.xls"));
            sheet = wb.getSheetAt(0);

            comment = sheet.getCellComment(3, 4);
            System.out.println(comment.getString().getString());

Regards, Evgeniy