Hey Jonathan,
1). Yes, in Tokyo, the front page defaults to blog posts in case the “widgetized front page” was not switched on.
3). You’ve inserted it slightly incorrectly; I’ve prepared a custom theme file for you to ensure that the code works: please download this archive, unzip it, and upload the contained file into the theme folder (/wp-content/themes/Tokyo), replacing the existing file. Please let me know if this version works!
Sincerely,
Andrii / Satori Studio