Where can I preorder the album titled "Colors" by the J-Pop artist
named Utada Hikaru?

---

Request for Question Clarification by hailstorm-ga on 07 Nov 2002 18:01 PST

shenmueman,

What country are you trying to order from?

By the way, "Colors" is not a full album, but a CD single that will be
released on January 29th, 2003. It may be difficult to preorder it two
and a half months ahead of time even in Japan...

http://www.toshiba-emi.co.jp/hikki/news/index_e.htm

---

Clarification of Question by shenmueman-ga on 07 Nov 2002 19:20 PST

Yes, that's the place that I got the info from... I'm from the United
States.  Sorry, I meant album.  I know that it will be released then
but I want to know where online I can PREorder it.

---

Clarification of Question by shenmueman-ga on 07 Nov 2002 19:22 PST

Oops! I don't care if it's a Japanese or Overseas version. Sorry for
not telling you about that...

shenmueman,

Can You Keep a Secret? (sorry...just wanted to work my favorite Hikki
song title in somewhere...)

If you are willing to wade through some Japanese text, your best bet
for pre-ordering JPop CDs is via the Amazon Japan web site. The
preorder page for Colors is available from here:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/music/B00007ELNV/249-4113580-6730707

Though the product information is in Japanese, the pages for applying
for an Amazon account and payment information are available in
English. They can freely handle international addresses outside of
Japan while providing support in English, while allowing you to deal
with a direct Japanese source for maximum selection in the future.

The item can be shipped within 3 to 4 weeks of availability by
International Economy mail, or 2 to 5 days by International Express
mail.

While you're at it, here is a list of the 37 Utada Hikaru music items
available, in case there is anything else you are missing:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=music-jp&rank=-orig-rel-date&field-keywords=%E5%AE%87%E5%A4%9A%E7%94%B0%E3%83%92%E3%82%AB%E3%83%AB&bq=1/ref=sr_aps_all_pm/249-4113580-6730707

If you are willing to wait a while longer, YesAsia.com may eventually
be able to preorder this CD as well. To keep track of what's coming
soon, check out this link from time to time:
http://us.yesasia.com/en/UpcomingReleases.aspx?code=j&section=music&s=3&

Sites cited:

Amazon Japan
http://www.amazon.co.jp

YesAsia.com
http://www.yesasia.com

Google search terms used:
preorder Hikaru Utada

Wow! Thanks for the extremely detailed answer! Last night after
reading your answer, I preordered 2 copies of "Colors" from
amazon.co.jp with International Express! You were very helpful!

Considering the fact that amazon.co.jp is entirely in japanese (which
most people in the United States can not read fluently), there is also
another site that sells CDs directly from Japan. 
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp   Unlike Amazon Japan, this site is entirely
in English and it does allow pre-orders, I'm just not sure when they
will start allowing pre-orders of "Colors".  I assume that they will
allow pre-orders of it a month or more before the release since they
did that with UH3+ (DVD).  When I pre-ordered UH3+ (I did it a month
or so before), I received the DVD two days after it was officially
released in Japan (it did take about 3-4 for the DVD to ship from
Japan to the USA...using EMS), so I think http://www.cdjapan.co.jp is
a great place to pre-order/order authentic japanese CDs straight from
Japan.

eternallyhikaru,

You make good points about CDJapan for JPop CDs in general. But seeing
as just about all of Hikki's song and album titles are in English, I
think it is worth going through the Japanese descriptions to get Utaku
Hikaru material (assuming you know beforehand what you want) by Amazon
Japan because of the sheer volume of material available, quite a bit
more than can be found on CDJapan. The order pages can be set to
English, so there is no language problem with ordering what you want.
And it is most likely the fastest service to offer any pre-releases in
the future. But of course, CDJapan is certainly another option to keep
in mind.

I know about cdjapan.co.jp but that isn't as good as both amazon.co.jp
and yesasia.com, but it's still good.