Well the Tokyo Town feature is not easy but it is not as dumb as you thought. Here are two suggestions to help you out.
First the Tokyo Town items (cat, lantern, etc) can also be found through City Rewards. Essentially you visit other cities and collect free rewards. Most of the rewards are common items but sometimes it can be cash, gold key, or even Tokyo Town items. I did not play this game often when I use City Rewards causally I can find at least two Tokyo Town items per day. If someone has a bit more patience and time, I think the reward can be exponentially higher.
Second you can ask the Tokyo style building to constantly redesign until it fits the items you have. This is time consuming though.
