Reverse Nose Plugs Keep the Water In!
"Pit Stopper" has less to do with racing than running - running noses, that is. Those troubled by runny noses due to allergies or stuffy noses due to colds can simply plug their nostrils... with these ingenious nostril plugs.
Pollen allergy season has begun in Japan and the usual remedy - wearing allergy masks - may be the custom but it's notoriously ineffective.
Pit Stopper is the double-barreled solution that works two ways: they prevent irksome pollen from entering one's nasal passages and they keep your histamine-addled honker from dripping like a leaky faucet.
The plugs are linked by a flexible clear plastic cord that somewhat disturbingly resembles one of those hospital oxygen feeds. Each stopper is soft and flexible to conform to the inner diameter of the wearer's nostrils and is designed like a baffle; sort of like the O-rings used in the space shuttle.
Pit Stopper and their companion product, Nose Mask Pit - basically an internally worn air filter - are discussed in the following Japanese video:
As weird as they seem on first consideration, I would've killed for a pair of Pit Stoppers in high school. Spring & Fall allergies drove me to distraction and I couldn't help feel I was annoying the rest of the class with my constant sniffling. Pit Stopper would have solved that problem, plus they'd have looked way cooler than stuffing twists of Kleenex into each nostril, nosebleed-style.
In any case, it's nice that Japan has nicely updated, re-packaged and doubtless improved the ol' Kleenex twist in the form of Pit Stopper. You can order Pit Stopper and Nose Mask Pit directly from the manufacturer's website, priced at 525 yen ($6.25) per 3-pack and 2,310 yen ($27.00) for the econo-pack of 14.