If you loved Pokémon growing up, prepare to feel incredibly jealous of the Asbury Park, NJ beachgoers who are witnessing something straight out of Ash Ketchum’s adventures: There’s a rat inside this beach ball!
Yes!!! Eat your heart out Pokémon fans, it just doesn’t get cooler than this!
No sunbather could be blamed for thinking a Poké Ball had rolled out of a Gameboy and onto the Jersey shore just now, because the sight of this multicolored beach ball containing a ferocious rodent is as close to real-life Pokémon as it gets! The ball is careening around the sand in sudden lurches, accented by the frantic movements of the rat silhouette inside, which appears ready to battle any of the seagulls or water-winged toddlers it keeps bumping into. Judging by how violently this beach ball is shaking, you’d think a level-50 Radicate was ready to pop out and escape into the tall grass of an abandoned commercial development lot in downtown Asbury Park!
The uncanny parallels to Pokémon here are truly remarkable. In fact, an unsupervised 10-year-old Japanese boy jammed the fidgeting beach ball inside his backpack, and later hurled it at an unsuspecting couple on the boardwalk—uh, literally, is this Ash Ketchum duking it out with Team Rocket?! Seriously, either there’s some diehard Pokémon cosplay going on at the beach today, or this is one mind-blowing instance of life imitating art!
Wow. Who would’ve thought Asbury Park, NJ was the closest a Pokémon fan could get to exploring Kanto?!
Yup, this is pretty much every kid’s dream come true. You’re not alone if this rat-containing-beach-ball made you want to scream “Gotta catch ‘em all!” and update your Pokédex. Talk about nostalgia overload!
